[2000-07-20-WWF-Smackdown] HHH & Chris Benoit vs The Rock & Chris Jericho

[soup23]

Another cool Foley opening promo with our final build up to Fully Loaded. Mick announces that if Rock is DQ’d, he will lose the title. That gets some boos but makes sense given that the violence has put things out of control leading up to the PPV and Mick says he can’t be seen as a pushover. Shane, Benoit, Jericho all get some promo time and Benoit locks on the crossface on Jericho. HHH music fires up and out he comes to continue the attack. Rock comes out to run the heels off. This did a good job of setting up stuff for the present tonight and also the future.

 

The tag match is splendid and up there with the better tv offerings from WWF in the year. All of the issues feel personal and each one of the pairings work well together and interweaved. Jericho’s ribs get worked over and HHH/Benoit are ferocious in their attack. This is HHH as his Ric Flair lite best as he comes in and picks his spots while Benoit is the Enforcer of the tag team. Jericho isn’t even able to get the hot tag as Rock has enough and forcers his way in. He goes nuts on everyone including the referee causing a dQ. They do a good job on commenatary putting over that if he does that on Sunday, he loses the title. After the match, Shane comes in and gets beat up taking a ridiculous bump onto the announce table. Jericho locks on the Walls on HHH and Rock grabs a crossface on Benoit! This is excellently executed by Rock and he should have went with that over the Sharpshooter. What a great go home angle. ***1/2 (7)

[GSR]

‘Cheap Pop’ Mick says how he’s had the time of his life since becoming Commissioner, but on Monday while he was having the time of his life he wasn’t paying attention, and Raw turned into one of the most violent and brutal shows in WWF history. So he’s got a bit of a problem; as much as he likes being backstage and telling jokes with the ‘boys’, that’s not really why he was bought back to the WWF, he was bought back to be the Commissioner. When the Rock split Chris Benoit wide open Monday night he saw unbridled hatred in his eyes, which makes him a little concerned that at Fully Loaded he’ll be more interested in beating the crap out of him as opposed to gaining a victory. Foley believes that the WWF fans deserve more than a cheap DQ finish, more than a two minute main event, so he’s adding a further stipulation in that the title can change hands on a disqualification. Jerry Lawler likes the sound of that, but judging by the amount of boos that receives, he’s the only person in the building who does! Chris Jericho joins the Commissioner and while he thinks it’s tremendous that he wants to abolish all the brutality in the WWF, after he experienced what he experienced at the hands of Triple H, he doesn’t want the brutality to end just yet. He goes on to say how Mick Foley is the president of the “I just beat the living hell out of Triple H and left him laying within an inch of his life” club and he wants in! That’s why he asked for the ‘last man standing’ match at Fully Loaded, and although Foley granted it him, he can’t wait until then and wants “in” tonight. I should’ve known that more interruptions were on there way after how these opening segments had been going, now here comes Shane O’Mac and ‘the Crippler’. Shane congratulates Mick on the first intelligent he’s made as Commissioner in adding that special disqualification ruling to the World title match, as by doing so he has taken away the Rock’s only avenue of escape, because he knows he can’t beat Chris Benoit on his own. After instructing Foley to make a title match for tonight with the same disqualification ruling, so that ‘the Crippler’ can walk into Fully Loaded as the champion, Triple H and Stephanie join the party. As Y2J is distracted by their entrance, Benoit jumps him from behind and locks on the crossface. Foley manages to pull him off, but HHH with a pedigree behind the Commissioner’s back. Rock with the save running the two of them off and Mick sets a tag team match between the four for later in the show.

 

A chaotic opening sees the teams pair off and fight around ringside. Triple H drops Y2J onto the announcer’s table and as Earl Hebner tries to get them in the ring, that gives Shane the opportunity to help his charge and gets some shots in on the Rock. More of those nasty sounding knife edge chops from ‘the Crippler’. ‘The Game’ launches Jericho over the table and he wipes out Michael Cole in the process. Stephanie then starts taunting Y2J as he favours those injured ribs. Rock counters the HHH backdrop with a spinning neckbreaker and tags in his partner. Jericho hammers away on Triple H until he manages to respond with a shot to that weakened mid-section. Repeated kicks to the ribs before he drops a knee across them. Release front suplex by ‘the Crippler’, dropping Y2J chest first over the top rope. Jericho ducks the clothesline and flattens Benoit with a back elbow. Lionsault but ‘the Crippler’ gets his knees up, doing even more damage to those ribs. The Earl Hebner ‘shove’ spot after he pulls HHH away from Y2J as he’s pounding on him in the corner. I hoped we’d seen the last of that one. Triple H has Jericho set for the pedigree and the Rock has had enough of standing on the apron and is in to help his partner. DDT to HHH, spinebuster to Benoit and as Hebner tries to get him out of the ring, Rock slugs him too! That’s the DQ and Michael Cole reiterates that if that happens at Fully Loaded it will cost him the title. ‘Rock Bottom’ on Benoit. HHH is about to nail ‘the Great One’ with a chair, when Jericho to the rescue with a double leg take down. Y2J puts him in ‘the Walls’ and a possessed, almost maniacal looking Rock has a snug, tight looking crossface on ‘the Crippler’.

 

I thought the Raw go home was tremendous, but this was even better. This Benoit feud has really lit a fire under the Rock who has been outstanding in his aggressiveness, intensity and well literally everything these past couple of weeks. He’s also clearly been getting some pointers off ‘the Crippler’ in the back about how to apply an effective looking crossface!

[ohtani's jacket]

The WWF has really excelled at these go-home shows in 2000 but this one was a little hokey for my liking. I had a smirk on my face when the Rock lost it. It may have been all right if JR had called it but Cole sounded like a YouTuber. Good matchmaking but the execution wasn't there.