[2000-09-25-WWF-Raw] The Rock vs Chris Benoit

[soup23]

Stone Cold opens things up with a state of the Austin address. He talks about the things that have changed and says he is there to raise hell and see who ran him over. Foley comes out as well. Foley says he is happy that Austin is back and wanting to kick ass but he is going to conduct the investigation. Benoit comes out too and demands a match with Rock tonight. Benoit doesn’t look overshadowed in the ring with these two which is impressive. Foley has a Monica Lewinsky joke which seems dated even in 2000. Foley announces Rock vs Benoit tonight. Angle’s music then fires up and he comes out. Angle whines and says he got screwed. Foley denies his motion. Angle then tells Austin how dare you. In their first interaction together in ring, they already have some great chemistry with each other and just feel like Austin is going to recoil and attack. Angle says he doesn’t consider Austin a winner and demands an apology from Austin. Austin says he does owe him an apology but that isn’t happening tonight. Stunners for Angle and Benoit end the segment. Rock gives a quick promo but a good one at how intense he is and calling out Benoit. Time for the match and Shane is joining Benoit so this union is back together for one night. Quick action right out of the gate as a huge Shane’s a pussy chant breaks out. Lawler plays it off that Shane will admit to being cat like in some respects. Shane interferes with a choke and they are really pushing a title change on commentary. Dragon screw and Sharpshooter from Rock early and Shane hits him with a right hand quickly to break things up. The Shane interference throughout the match is overwrought but so much heated and logical compared to the mess we saw on Nitro. Shane gets popped with a chair after Hebner punks him out. Steph runs down to check on Shane and HHH tells her to go to the back. JR is freaking out that a referee isn’t out there. Benoit runs into HHH from a Rock Irish whip and they go after each other. HHH puts Benoit neck over the top rope and right into a Rock Bottom for the count. HHH seems to be pretty steadily heading into face territory. Angle and Benoit come out and double team the Rock. HHH pulls Angle off and Angle is able to attack HHH and go after those battered ribs. The crowd does seem a bit perplexed. Steph slaps Angle and Benoit headbutts her. Holy shit what a big role for him and that was shocking. Angle seems stunned as the show goes off the air. A good reset after Unforgiven. **1/2

[AstroBoy]

Benoit is on fire cutting off Rock swiftly and viciously throughout the match. Coupled with Shane's constant interference they are really building heat for Rock's comeback. Benoit just works with so much pressure and focus here and he really gets a lot to work with here just like the night before. He has been positioned really well as the workhorse technician and the crowd comes alive when Rock finally gets the Rock Bottom here after Benoit crashed into Triple H to kick off their issues.

 

The post-match is a good piece of chaos with Angle, Rock, Triple H, Benoit, and Stephanie all intermingling to create some new directions in the main event scene.

 

***1/4

[ohtani's jacket]

Austin's back but I'm not sure he's been missed, It doesn't help that he's back with an absolute turd of an angle and having four-way promos that end with stunners. Rock vs. Benoit was good but the run-ins sucked. The set-up for Benoit vs. HHH was about as innocuous as it gets. The WWF feels like it's cooling off (product wise) and the monthly PPV grind is definitely a factor. I wonder how much better the WWF would have been if they'd cut out some of the bullshit B level PPVs that replaced In Your House. The last quarter of the year feels like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel for match-ups. The booking has also become stale. I guess they were coasting until the Royal Rumble build but the energy isn't the same as the first half of the year. 

[GSR]

The debut episode of Raw on TNN kicks off with the WWF’s biggest of big guns, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, the investigation into who ran him over last November still underway.  Austin says that in the ten months since he’s been gone a lot has changed in the company; he returned last night, drank a few beers, kicked a few asses, but didn’t find the yellow bastard that ran him down at the Survivor Series!  He tells all the superstars in the back that he’s going to work his way through every one of them, getting payback and taking it out on their asses.  Mick Foley is out to interrupt ‘Stone Cold’ and mentions that one of the things that did happen while he was away is that he became Commissioner.  While he fully supports his quest to find the person who ran him over, he takes exception to the methods that he proposed and suggests Austin sit back and let him conduct the investigation for him.  That doesn’t go down too well with ‘Stone Cold’ who isn’t overly impressed with how little progress Foley’s investigation has been making.  He says how he used to drive up and down the road with him, knows that he’s a terrible driver and therefore how does he know it wasn’t he who was driving?  Before he can answer, the two of them are joined by Chris Benoit.  Nice continuity from the script writers here as ‘the Crippler’ introduces himself to ‘Stone Cold’ with this being the first time that they had met (I absolutely had forgot Benoit arrived after Austin left).  Benoit says that they can stand here and address some injustice that took place ten months ago, but he’s here to address an even greater injustice that took place just last night.  For the second time in his WWF career he was announced as the new WWF World Heavyweight champion only to then have the title taken from him.  If anyone deserves payback it’s him and he wants the Rock tonight for the WWF title.  Mick points out a sign in the crowd that says ‘Benoit was screwed’ and believes that with the benefit of hindsight he probably did screw him, so, surprisingly, gives him that shot.  We’re not finished yet as Kurt Angle joins the fun.  There is no doubt in his mind that Chris Benoit did get screwed last night, but it pales in comparison to the night he had as he almost lost a friend.  A big part of friendship is learning to forgive, and after viewing the tape forgives Stephanie as he understands why she did what she did, he doesn’t forgive HHH though.  Triple H the wrestler didn’t beat him, Triple H the crazy abusive husband beat him, and if there is anyone who deserves a rematch it’s him.  The Commissioner denies that request and Kurt accepts for the time being, although does want to talk about another incident from last night.  He’s not happy at all that Steve Austin turned down his offer of friendship by attacking an American hero and won’t see his own career go down the drain because he was too slow to jump out the way of a car.  Kurt goes on to demand an apology which for a man with ‘intelligence’ is not the smartest of things!  Stunner for Angle and when Benoit tries to jump Austin he gets the same, there’ll be no apologies out of ‘Stone Cold’ tonight that’s for sure.

Michael Cole interviews The Rock who doesn’t say much bar that the ‘Rabid Wolverine’ will hit rock bottom and he will smell what the Rock is cooking!

Shane McMahon is walking out with Chris Benoit and Jerry Lawler is now guaranteeing that he is going to be the new WWF champion.  I’m not sure I’m as prepared to take ‘the King’s’ guarantees to the bank like I would do Mr McMahon’s!  Benoit beats Rock to the punch with a knee to the mid-section and picks up pair of early two counts following a snap suplex and a backbreaker.  Shane is already showing that he’s going to be a thorn in the Rock’s side here, getting in some shots from the floor as Benoit distracts referee Earl Hebner.  Rock catches the kick, dragon screw leg whip and in no time locks on ‘the Sharpshooter’.  As Hebner checks to see whether ‘the Crippler’ is going to give it up, Shane climbs in the ring from the opposite sidee and slugs Rock causing him to break the hold.  Benoit with a couple of rolling German suplexes, but Rock blocks the third with some rapid fire back elbows.  He gets a near fall after a DDT only for his comeback to be cut short when he gets caught with a swinging neckbreaker.  A big diving headbutt two thirds of the way across the ring, although ‘the Crippler’ hurts himself as much as his opponent with that.  The Rock reverses an Irish whip and launches Benoit with a release overhead suplex.  McMahon pulls Hebner’s leg to get him to stop the count leading to one of my least favourite tropes of the year, the Earl Hebner tough man spot.  Old man Earl jumps to the outside, gets right in the face of Shane and threatens to send him to the back.  As he climbs up on the apron, still berating Shane, Benoit reverses an Irish whip sending Rock crashing into Hebner who falls to the floor.  The action continues without a referee, Shane getting in some more cheap shots, although as he starts dancing he doesn’t realise that the shots had no effect on the Rock.  ‘Rock Bottom’ for McMahon but he then eats a Benoit clothesline.  ‘The Rabid Wolverine’ accidentally cracks Shane over the head with a chair.  Stephanie runs down to check on her brother, quickly followed by Triple H.  As the two of them roll him out of there, the Rock whips Benoit into ‘the Game’.  A ‘Rock Bottom’ for ‘the Crippler’ and Earl has recovered sufficiently to count the fall.  Kurt Angle is out post-match and joins forces with Benoit in attacking the Rock and HHH, focussing his attention on Hunter’s injured ribs which are all taped.  Stephanie comes to her husband’s aid, slapping Kurt, which results in Benoit HEADBUTTING STEPHANIE!!!  Bloody hell!  Angle is torn over what to do but ends up leaving with Benoit.