[2000-11-20-WWF-Raw] Steve Austin vs Chris Benoit

[Superstar Sleeze]

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Chris Benoit - RAW 11/20/00

 

This is the night after Survivor Series when Austin dropped HHH from a forklift. Benoit, a HHH ally, is to claim that Austin can do all this hellraising and damage, but he cant wrestle. Benoit as a superior technical wrestler would take him to school. Just 5-6 years later, Benoit would have been cheered for that and Austin booed. How times have changed. Austin says he is going to whoop Benoit's ass. Benoit actually gets in a good line before the main event saying "You wont get Austin 316 instead you will get Benoit 101 and Austin you are gonna fail."

 

Austin does some really nice technical wrestling spots at the beginning to prove he can beat Benoit at his own game. His arm drags are decent, his armbars are shaky, but I liked his drop toehold a lot. The transition into the heat segment is weak. It is just a suplex. Benoit should have cheated. Benoit wrestled this match pretty cold. I actually think he was better suited as the asskicking, always moving forward babyface. As a heel, he never did anything all that heelish. Benoit is proven to be a liar as he does very little technical wrestling and is content to smash Austin's head off hard objects and throw a suplex here and there. Austin is focused on proving he can still keep up and uses technical wrestling counters. The match is wrestled a little fast and there is no time to breathe, but it does not have the urgency of a sprint. I liked Benoit's diving headbutt to the kidneys, but acknowledge that Benoit diving headbutts are the hardest thing to watch in wrestling. There are a lot of hope spots, Benoit is nominally in control of the majority of the match. Austin finally whoops some ass and then hits the Stunner!

 

I was expecting a lot more and maybe it is the 2001 match that is more praised and I confused the two. I will be watching that one shortly. This was a perfectly fine TV match. The hook of Austin consciously trying to beat Benoit at his own game was nice, but ultimately this was a just good little TV match which I would probably wont remember much of. ***

[Loss]

There are two (5/28/01 Raw and 5/31/01 Smackdown) other Austin-Benoit matches. It's the Smackdown match that gets the most love. The RAW match was building to something better, but didn't get as much time, although it's still very good. This match is more remembered for it being Austin's unofficial announcement that he was going to try actual wrestling again.

[soup23]

Steph starts Raw off with a promo. Good work by her carrying a fifteen minute segment and retaining heat. HHH is mercifully gone after the hokey end last night. They do set the table for his return talking about a lack of broken bones and what not which is pretty ridiculous. Austin comes out and he has a good back and forth with Steph with the crowd going nuts for him. Knowing Austin’s real life history with women, this is pretty off putting behind the scenes but as on screen characters, it matches the story at hand. Benoit comes out when you think the segment is over and he has a great promo talking about Austin isn’t as good a wrestler as he claims. Another feather in the cap of Benoit for this year as he hangs with Austin here and brings up a great sounding main event for later on in the night. Quick segment backstage with Radicalz saying they have Benoit’s back. Match starts with an amateur takedown by Austin and a bird to go with it to show he can wrestle. Austin continues with a hiptoss and some arm work. Benoit takes back the advantage and Lawler continues to be a jekyl and hyde on commentary clearly being a heel here cheering Benoit on. This felt like a way of easing Austin in to a non brawling exclusive match and he did fine but did show some ring rust IMO. Benoit focuses on the back and hits a beautiful diving headbutt that gets a nearfall. Match breaks down into more of a brawl but Benoit regains the advantage by driving the shoulder into the post. He hits some German’s but Austin fights back blocking some and then gets a nice surprise stunner for the win. Ross screams that Austin wins with a wrestling move. Would have liked to have seen this be a few minutes longer but Benoit looked good here and Austin seems to be rounding back into shape. **3/4

[ohtani's jacket]

Austin cuts an edgy promo in Stephanie's face but the angle is still trash. Benoit does a decent job of delivering his lines and we have ourselves a match. Austin tries to outwrestle Benoit in the early going but he's a bit slow. I don't know if it was ring rust or the fact that it had been a while since he'd worked some of these holds. He was beginning to settle into a groove when Benoit took over and from there it was a regular TV bout without much focus on technical wrestling. There wasn't the same chemistry as Benoit's bouts with Rock, Triple H, and Jericho but it definitely had potential as a program. Too bad they ran with it. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that Austin went over clean without any interference from the Radicalz.