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[2000-01-03-WWF-Raw] HHH vs Big Show


soup23

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Welcome to the HHH show. HHH announces to DX that he wants to go at things alone here. Steph’s wardrobe has evolved a lot in 16 years. I really liked the beginning of this match with Show showing his size dominance. He uses his big man offense and HHH bumps around for him doing the Harley Race bump to the floor. HHH overall has to use resources and bursts of strength to get on offense like shoving Show into the steps and over the announce table. Show’s kickout on the high knee was nice showing that he still had strength in him that HHH hadn’t worn down yet. Really close nearfall off a sidewalk slam and Show follows that up with a big powerslam for another. Show gets the chokeslamed that is bailed out by HHH getting his foot on the rope. Show takes a big chance going for a middle rope elbow and he misses. This was the first big mistake he has made and HHH capitalizes by going for the pedigree. Show is able to block that. DX rushes to ringside but is stopped by the referee. While all of this commotion is going on, HHH is able to hit a low blow and the pedigree and win the championship starting his signature run with the title. Pyro goes off and DX celebrates. Overall, this was a lot better than I thought it would be going in and I thought Show looked relatively strong in defeat here. **3/4

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This was the HHH-Big Show version of a bombfest, which sounds like damning with faint praise, but this was actually a solid match. They cut a hard pace with Show doing all these crazy moves and bumps for a guy his size -- a powerslam, missing a second-rope elbow drop, taking a bump on the ringside announce table, and so forth. What struck me more than anything was how heatless this whole thing was, though. It really did take a long time to get HHH over as the top heel, and he wasn't quite there yet when this match happened. And of course we know Show's story. I thought HHH was perfectly fine here, but Big Show was just dropping bombs and bumping way more than he ever should have. That made this quite the entertaining ride, even if the crowd just sat on their hands. I've had the theory that non-Austin/Rock matches didn't really have heat (even if the wrestlers themselves were over) until Benoit and friends came in and improved the match quality. We'll see if that theory holds water.

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Couple thoughts on the heat piece of this; I think a piece of that is just Big Show's lack of being over as champ (although I'll note that people probably forget - myself included - that he pinned HHH the week before this. They booked him strong) combined with DX constantly running in on H's matches (and here they stood on the ramp), which usually always leads to the crowd sitting on their hands. And to top it off, this was the 10pm slot of the show. The Rock vs. DX was the main event (which led to the pole match with Mankind the following week). No one saw this coming.

 

To echo the above, HHH did make Show look strong here, but in the end he succumbed to a low blow, instead of the predictable interference, and pedigree and that was that for his tepid reign. Fine match work-wise, no doubt. The crowd popped for the bell and title change, out of complete shock really as this is one of the flatter title changes of all-time.

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  • 6 months later...

This was alright, and Show was bumping pretty big, but I was also kind of surprised at how heatless it was. Had no recollection of it not being the main event, either.

 

I always get super nostalgic about this time period of WWF. It was the point where I really started getting back into it again after checking out for most of 1999 (we got rid of Sky in our house around then). I think this was the only RAW of the year I didn't tape, and it was actually while watching the following episode of Heat that I found out Helmsley had won the belt. By the time it got to the Royal Rumble I was all in again. Should be fun revisiting a lot of this stuff for the first time since I was a 14 year old.

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This is the end of Big Show's awful title reign that was highlighted by a feud with the Big Boss Man. I was a fan of HHH at this time (I was 10) and remember being very excited when he defeated Big Show for the title. Not a bad match and they didn't go the predictable route with DX interfering. The crowd seemed pretty dead though, most likely due to lack of interest with Big Show.

 

**1/2

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I'm one of the people who was outed as a HHH voter in the GWE poll -- I had him at 99. He's a personal favorite, and someone I honestly think is better than some people give him credit for. He's by no means the worst main eventer of his generation, and he does have some areas where he shines. He's always willing to bump big (even if it doesn't make his opponent look great), he looks the part, and he carries himself like he is a big deal.

 

All that said, this was a pretty boring match with not much going for it. HHH did do a nice flat back bump on the toss over the barricade to the floor, but beyond that nothing stood out to me. This isn't the match I'd point to as a case for HHH as being anything beyond a capable hand.

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Big Show had such crappy gear here, it took them forever to find a good way of presenting him. I thought the match was fine, HHH & Big Show have always matched up fairly well together but like everyone said, the crowd kind of didn't care. I'm surprised that HHH hasn't brought back the thing they had here with pictures of him beside the entrance for NXT to let you know "This is the HHH show"

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HHH was actually a ton of fun really bumping around and taking a nasty hiptoss over the barricade to the floor that had to hurt. Something about Big Show just seemed so sterile and awkward here. Him going for that big elbow off the second just seemed so odd and unnecessary. I did really love him shrugging off the early work by HHH and just killing him with a big headbutt. For a title switch it just felt so under-the-radar and flat at the end. I really did enjoy HHH here though outside of his crappy knee offense and that was a pleasant surprise.

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Show looked pretty lean here and I'm not sure why he felt the need to wrestle in a t-shirt. This was probably Hunter's athletic peak and watching him move around the ring highlights what a mistake it was for him to add so much bulk later on. Match was solid but it certainly didn't feel worthy of a title change. If anything, the celebration with Steph and DX felt bigger than the wrestling.

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Big Show was not very over as champion but watching him work here makes it feel like he should have been. He moved well and bumped great, I really liked when he took the spill over the guardrail into the front row but am glad I wasn't in one of those seats. HHH was a two-time champion by this point and only starting to get over, with the Vince match in December helping a lot. I remember this feeling like the right title change at the right time. The match holds up well as a match but not as a major WWF main event style match, which will kick into gear with the forthcoming Cactus matches.

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Cool video package.

HHH to X-Pac; "I want you to beat his [big Show's] ass like it's never been beaten before."

*simultaneously shows X-Pac being tossed around in the match*

 

Yeah this didn't have a ton of heat, nor did it feel like a title match basically at all (the big celebration almost seemed out of place because of that), but it's a good match. Both guys were pretty willing to fling themselves here and there, I especially think Show took a hell of a spill on the announce table. HHH getting tossed onto the floor from near the barricade looked rough too. I like that DX technically interfered, while not physically interfering, or given getting very close to the ring.

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  • 1 month later...

I could write 500 words just on Stephanie's GIGANTIC tie from the video package at the beginning, but I'll try to curb that. You guys saw that shit though right? Another fun pre-match bit features Michael Cole trying to interview Show while wearing two different shades of denim. What a fucking punk Cole is. How did his mom even let him out of the house wearing some shit like that.

 

Forgot how good the "My Time" entrance theme is. WWF Copyright pops up during HHH's entrance in a classic late 90s-early 2000s WWF TV main event move. I don't watch the TV these days, do they still milk that overrun for all its worth? Not much to say about the early-going here. Hunter takes his Harley corner bump, looked great as usual. Cool sign that says "Noah Is Gay" in the front row gets a nice shot just before Hunter takes a big bump over the rail. One thing I definitely don't miss from the Attitude Era is the rampant homophobia and sexism exhibited by the crowd. I wonder how many "Show your tits!" chants we'll hear in the course of this project.

 

Crowd is fairly bored as HHH runs through his banal signature offense. He takes a big chokeslam right by the ropes, which must have hurt really freaking bad. People never really call out bumps like that, but taking a big high impact bump like that right next to the ropes is pretty close to taking the same bump on the apron. This ends pretty quickly afterwards, but protected Show. Not really much of a match, especially considering it's a title change. I wonder where guys like Rock and Foley were on this same episode of Raw. It's a cliche to say at this point, but man, the Radicals coming in really lit the workrate end of this company on fire, and a lot of the rest of the roster started working really hard to keep up.

 

I'm not going to recommend this for any reason other than Stephanie's big tie and Cole's poorly coordinated denim outfit.

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  • 1 month later...

Recap of the previous week’s Raw when Big Show faced HHH and where both DX and Mankind got involved, but it was Mankind’s interference that led to Show retaining his title. We move onto Smackdown and HHH orders X-Pac to face Show ‘and beat his ass like he’s never been beaten before’, but HHH continues to change the rules everytime Show’s in charge and it ends with DX leaving him a bloody mess in the ring.

 

Big Show is out first for his title defense and HHH is accompanied by all of DX, he insists they stay at the top of the runway though and he heads to the ring on his own. Show attacks HHH before he’s even entered the squared circle and opens very aggressively. Hunter ducks a clubbing right, starts to fire back, however a headbutt puts a stop to that. Show telegraphs a backdrop, HHH kicks him but he doesn’t even register it and delivers another headbutt. Big elbow and Hunter only just manages to kick out. Show reverses a whip to the corner and HHH goes flying over the top turnbuckle to the floor. He picks him up, but Hunter slides down his back and uses Show’s momentum to shove him over the guard rail and into the front row. Show beels HHH back into the ringside area, goes to whip him into the ringsteps, however Hunter reverses and Show is the one who goes crashing into them. Back in the ring and HHH with a facebuster followed by a high knee. Show kicks out of the cover with authority, and responds with a huge side slam for a near fall and a great powerslam for another. Chokeslam, but HHH is too close to the ropes though and is able to get his leg over them. He misses an elbow drop off the middle, Hunter goes for the pedigree but Show counters with a backdrop. X-Pac runs down the aisle to interfere, however he’s cut off by Mike Chioda. Show goes for a second chokeslam, but with the referee distracted, HHH kicks him low and hits the pedigree to become the new WWF champion. DX celebrate with him after as pyro goes off in the building and black and green balloons fall from the ceiling.

 

Show looks like the World’s largest backyarder here wrestling in his T-shirt! Not the look you want for your World champion. I liked his aggressiveness at the beginning, but on the whole I found this dull. Crowd were very quiet and only came alive after Show kicked out of the high knee, but they were into his nearfall attempts towards the end. The match seemed more about trying to show that HHH didn’t need DX to become World champion, even though an X-Pac distraction gives him the chance to low blow Big Show and hit the pedigree. For a World title change (when this still kinda meant something), this all felt very lacklustre, although they did put some effort into the post-match with the pyro and balloons.

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Getting back into this after a very lengthy absence, and I liked this more than I thought I would. Thought it definitely deserved better than it got from the crowd. Triple H did a fantastic job on a couple of the near falls just before the rope break escape on the chokeslam.

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  • 2 weeks later...

HHH is not in his Harley Race mode yet like he was in 2002 but he's not original DX HHH here. It's not secret that I'm a big HHH mark especially this era so I thought he did good here. It's a shame he's in with Show tho. Show looks better than he did in 1999 and bumped ok but he's just not championship material. The crowd doesn't care but they do try anyways. I'm shocked the finish was so clean. Show just casually walking to the back after taking the pin tells you all you need to know.

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  • 5 months later...

A match that really sums up HHH before he was working with over babyfaces; heatless matches, really boring on offense but a big bumper. I thought this was a good Show performance, probably better than it deserved considering the shitty finish but the pieces are in place for 2000 WWF going forward and it gets better from here.

 

As an aside, I was wondering why we had no Nitro matches from this date, then checked the card to see a ton of Lethal Lottery Tag Matches that barely went longer than 3 minutes. WCW were gone by this point.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I thought Big Show was pretty good in this match but I generally tend to like him as long as he's not totally out of shape. I thought it was perfectly fine as a TV match, but certainly not a big moment by any means, considering they switched the belt on TV. I think part of that is just me being out of practice when it comes to watching that era recently. Also, DX just felt so fucking lame by this point.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The dead crowd really made this not feel special at all, let alone like a world title change. You can see that they haven't hit their 00 high point as of yet, it will be interesting to see the WWF become hotter as the year goes on.

 

Show really feels like a transitional champ, despite him working hard and as others have said throwing out a lot of bombs. HHH looked ok in this, I like how he used the flying knee as a running attack rather than catching the opponent off of the ropes. His flat back bump on the outside (conveniently captured in gif form above me!) looked great as well.

 

I didn't really feel like this fully clicked, I think my opinion would be a bit different with a hotter crowd. **

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  • 4 months later...

Man, this could have been so much better without the silly DX stuff. I know it set up the low blow into the Pedigree for the finish, which is a boring, but decent enough finish for a match like this, but they could have been more creative with the finish and still set up the referee being distracted with something else. DX looming awkwardly on the ramp just set the wrong atmosphere for an otherwise sort of interesting match. Like most everybody else, I enjoyed the bumping in this match, but I do think they should have done a better job with Big Show resisting some of these bumps as it doesn't make sense for a guy as big as him to moved so easily by HHH. The first bump I can live with, as it was established well enough that it was his own momentum that carried him over the rail. The second wasn't as well done as HHH reversed the Irish whip and then whipped Big Show. I really didn't like that spot, but Big Show bumped well and that aspect was impressive. I just don't like HHH being able to the put the brakes on that Irish whip and then have the strength to then pull Big Show from a dead stop into the steps with that much force. There are other, smarter ways to do that spot. The bump into the announce table was a little awkward, but it made a lot more sense. HHH bumped impressively in this match, that hip toss over the barricade was pretty gnarly and probably the best moment of the match. This match is a disappointment because it showed potential for something interesting and failed to deliver all the way through.

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  • 2 months later...

Big Show's look was absolutely insane here. Freid hair, tight shirt and tights. He looks to be in great shape, though. A crazy look for your champion. He bumped around pretty well here, but otherwise the crowd wasn't that into this for a lot of it, and it felt like a pretty standard tv match. Not bad or anything but nothing remarkable. The Foley feud was one of the most important things for my wrestling fandom as a kid, but I completely forgot that HHH's title reign began this way on a Raw just a few weeks before. Weird.

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  • GSR changed the title to [2000-01-03-WWF-Raw] HHH vs Big Show

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