The Shimmy 6.23.08: The Chris Benoit Report Card (Part One)

For those of you that are of the opinion that it is too soon to remember the good of Chris Benoit I encourage you to leave the column. Some of you might thing it will always be too soon and I completely understand. But for the next six weeks this column will be dedicated to Chris Benoit the wrestler from February 27, 2000 to May 20, 2008 and not Chris Benoit the murderer of the weekend of June 22, 2007.

Six Man Tag Team Match: Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, & Perry Saturn vs. Rikishi & Too Cool (No Way Out 2000)

For the longest time this was my favorite match on this card, even more so then the underwhelming-at-the-time Foley-Triple H Hell in a Cell Match. Too Cool and Rikishi were just so damn over and the Radicalz brought the goods when it came to in ring ability. I think a lot of people see this match as a wasted opportunity for the Radicalz, but if it is any consolation the original main event before Eddie Guerrero broke his arm was supposed to be The Radicalz against a Foley lead team (according to Mick’s second book). Still, this was a good showcase of what the new blood could do and these six men had surprisingly good chemistry together.

My Grade: A-

Intercontinental & European Title, 2 Fall Triple Threat Match: Kurt Angle© vs. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit (WrestleMania 2000)

I have never been as enamored with this match as some, but I have some sort of hardwired programming not to like hardly anything about this show (I think the Triangle Ladder Match is the weakest of the TLC Matches). Maybe it had to do with the fact that I still wasn’t sold on Kurt Angle as a legit contender, who knows. Still, when you have these three men in a match, at WrestleMania no less, it’s hard to come up with a bad outing. Even taking Angle out of the mix and Benoit and Jericho proved why they would be paired up numerous times over the years. I was happy to see Benoit win the IC Title here because it marked right off the bat that WWE had some plans for him.

My Grade: B+

Intercontinental Title Match: Chris Benoit© vs. Chris Jericho (Backlash 2000)

It’s been a few year since I’ve seen this match but the only real fault I can remember having with it was the finish. Benoit and Jericho always have good matches (they even had a few on free TV a few weeks before this) and this was no exception. I normally hate when people regale me with tales of the good old days of the IC Title, but I kind of can’t help being reminded on that when thinking about this match. Like I said, the only real issue here was the finish which saw the face in the match get blatantly disqualified, and even though the concept was dumb the actual spot came off beautifully.

My Grade: A-

Intercontinental Title, Submission Match: Chris Benoit© vs. Chris Jericho (Judgment Day 2000)

You can pretty much take what I said above and apply it this match as well. Again the finish was the only problem as Jericho passing out while in the Crippler Crossface was a tad clichéd. This would not be the only great Submission Match between these two either as they would meet again five years later on an episode of Raw broadcast from Japan.

My Grade: A-

King of the Ring Quarter-Final Match: Chris Benoit vs. Rikishi (King of the Ring 2000)

JD Dunn’s recent recap of this show reminded me of just how strange they booked the later stages of this tournament. I loved that it was a 32 man tournament instead of one of those lame eight or 16 tournaments, but the way they executed the Quarter-Finals was odd. You would think the likes of Angle, Benoit, and Jericho would all have advanced to the semis but only Angle, the eventual winner, made it out of his Quarter-Final Match (beating Jericho no less). At the time I thought Benoit was the odds on favorite to win the crown so you can imagine my surprise when he lost by DQ to Rikishi in his first match of the night. The match, while short, was pretty decent but the puzzling booking decision taints it a bit. The post-match beatdown that Benoit puts on Rikishi’s shoulder is good though and helped establish a running story for the rest of the night.

My Grade: C-

WWE Title Match (Title Can Change on DQ): The Rock© vs. Chris Benoit (Fully Loaded 2000)

Here is where Benoit really started to shine in WWE. If I remember the rumors correctly Benoit was originally slated to face Undertaker with Kurt Angle wrestling for the title but Undertaker had some sort of arm injury that would prevent him from selling the Crossface so they switched. Turned out to be a pretty good idea. The Rock showed that he could hang with a talented wrestler and Benoit showed that he could entertain with the best of them. I wasn’t really on the internet at the time so I can only imagine the outcry when Benoit was announced as the champion only for it to be reversed. It’s a shame WWE is still keeping Benoit off of their compilation DVDs because this would have been a great addition to the new Rock DVD.

My Grade: A

2/3 Falls Match: Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho (SummerSlam 2000)

This was a bit of a step backward for both men in my estimation considering their great performances against The Rock and Triple H respectively a month ago. I think that is kind of evident here because even though the match is still great from a technical standpoint there doesn’t seem to be the same urgency they had in other matches around this time. Jim Ross attempted to get the match over as an unofficial No. 1 Contender’s Match on commentary but at the end of the day it was just a Benoit-Jericho exhibition, which is nowhere near as bad as I’m making it sound. I will say that I enjoyed the story leading up to this match with Jericho costing Benoit shots at the WWE and Hardcore Titles while Benoit cost Jericho shots at the Intercontinental and European Titles.

My Grade: A-

WWE Title, Fatal Four-Way Match: The Rock© vs. Chris Benoit vs. Undertaker vs. Kane (Unforgiven 2000)

Benoit did manage to get back in the title picture but why I don’t quite remember. I do remember that the build to this match was more focused on The Rock, Undertaker, and Kane but the actual match focused more on The Rock, Undertaker, and Benoit. The match itself was a fun Four-Way with lots of energy and some good storytelling, but when you look at it big picture it was just a way to get The Rock a title defense on PPV. This match also included yet another instance of Benoit being announced as the champion only for it to be reversed.

My Grade: A-

Chris Benoit vs. Triple H (No Mercy 2000)
The story for this feud was pretty dumb because it was just so random (Benoit decides one evening to just headbutt Stephanie McMahon why?) but the match was great. Triple H was probably wrestling better than anybody on the roster in 2000 and that’s saying something considering who they had on the roster, including Benoit. Triple H reversing the Crossface was a cool moment that I had actually forgotten about until reading Dunn’s column recently. WWE needed a heel opponent to throw at Triple H after his rather unexpected and unintended face turn and Benoit was the perfect guy for the job.

My Grade: A+

Classic Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Radicalz vs. Billy Gunn, Chyna, Road Dogg, & K-Kwik (Survivor Series 2000)

The Radicalz vs. The Fake DX. I’m still disappointed the New Age Outlaws never reunited in WWE. A lot of people complain that this was just taking The Radicalz back to square one but I liked the association with one another, even if it did kind of signal the end of Saturn and Malenko as anything more than lower midcarders. The real issue here, and the more intriguing match, was the Radicalz vs. The REAL DX (with Triple H replacing K-Kwik) and that match happened a few weeks earlier on Raw, albeit without elimination rules. These Survivor Series matches always have a certain element of fun to them but I really can’t recall anything too terribly memorable about this match.

B-

Intercontinental Title Match: Billy Gunn© vs. Chris Benoit (Armageddon 2000)

Well this is a down way to end the year, eh? And I even like Billy Gunn. Still, this was more or less an extended PPV squash with Benoit reclaiming the IC Title. I know a lot of people were angry at this point that he was still competing for the IC Title and not the WWE Title but I think the quality of what would come in the next few months was well worth it.

My Grade: C+

The Shimmy Likes It Raw!

What’s on tap for tonight’s show?