[2003-12-04-WWE-Smackdown] Brock Lesnar vs Chris Benoit

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs Chris Benoit - Smackdown! 12/04/03

 

Holy shit was 2003 a great year for Free TV matches from WWE or what! The Mysterio match was awesome. I remember really digging HHH vs HBK on RAW from later this year. I need to refresh my memory on Angle/Lensar Ironman match.

 

Benoit and "You Tapped Out " chants directed at Lesnar were wicked over. Why the hell did they switch Benoit to RAW for Wrestlemania XX? There was all this great build. Did they know Brock was leaving already? I am not going to complain because Eddie vs Brock is one of my all-time favorite matches.

 

I really liked the dynamic of this match and I hate to start off on a sour note, but I think these two had an all-time classic in them. All the pieces are there it is just the transitions and the little things did not add up. Benoit is so great at struggle in his matches and he creates so much movement. Brock is never shy of bumping and shining up a face. Benoit just did not get the real awesome string of offense until late. It made sense because Benoit had wrestled Cena earlier in the night so Brock jumpstarted the match. Benoit got his licks in and even teased the Crossface (love finisher teases early), but Brock nailed him with a great hotshot to take over. Brock settled into a chinlock with a bodyscissors, which is my least favorite hold because it is hard to work it in an entertaining fashion. My biggest pet peeve in wrestling is when the hold is just magically broken and the victim just gets up and does the three elbows to the midsection. They did it not just once, but twice! Eye-roll! That was pretty annoying. Cole actually did a great piece of commentary reminding Brock guaranteed to force Benoit to submit so that justifies these shitty holds to an extent. I would say the Brock heat segment was kinda dud. Some nice power stuff, but the holds just did not do it for me. Once, they got to the stand up portion I thought Benoit was just awesome as a babyface always moving forward and Brock as the desperate heel. Benoit's diving headbutt and crossface were super over and great work into the crossface. Then we get the ref bump and Brock hits a shitty F5, but thats because he is selling the arm. Genius! So Benoit kicks out there is a huge pop, but the finisher is protected by the ref taking a while to crawl over, Brock not getting all the F5 and Brock having a hard time covering with the bad arm. Great stuff! Brock has to use a chair and then applies the Brock Lock. What an awesome visual! Way better than Kimura. Yes, I know the Kimura is super dangerous, but wrestling is all about visuals BRING BACK THE BROCK LOCK! Benoit passes out. Brock snaps and has been driven mad by "You Tapped Out" that he applies the Crossface and takes Benoit's hand and taps him out. Wow, I really wish they had a chance to blow this off. Not one of the best TV matches from a wrestling standpoint, but a great one in terms of building the program to the climax. That we did not even get! Great beginning and finish, but middle kinda drags. Still a very good match. ***1/2

 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

This was pretty average. The only parts I liked were when Benoit was on offense, but of course they had to go with the narrative of Brock dominating and Benoit working his second match of the night. Brock was a good worker in 2003, but we've seen him work this kind of match several times and he didn't add anything new here. The ref bump and visual tap out were cliched, and even Benoit passing out instead of tapping out felt empty. I would have liked more of a straight up match with more striking and matwork.