[2000-03-02-WWF-Smackdown] Chris Jericho & Too Cool vs Chris Benoit & Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko

[soup23]

Good solid action here. Radicalz are still mixing it up with the upper mid card and besides losing at No Way Out I don’t really have any complaints about the booking decisions. Too Cool is still over as well. Eddy and Chyna start their interaction with each other and the Radicalz are able to pick up a big win. **1/2

[Loss]

Fun TV match. Jericho was probably happy to finally have some new guys to work with and maybe start escaping the purgatory with Chyna where he'd found himself. The visual of him brawling up the entrance with Malenko while Chyna follows them to stay attached made me laugh. Poor Chris just can't get away from her.

[AstroBoy]

Jericho is so sloppy and loose matching up with Dean to start this off. Benoit is really sharp working over Jericho and taking a nice German release to help set up the hot tag to GMS.

 

A team like Enzo and Cass should be occupying much more of a Too Cool type role in current WWE. No reason they can't be a part of fun crowd-pleasing early card matches like this more often. Another aside -- Saturn always just seemed like such a nonexistent fit in WWE. He never really clicked until the Moppy stuff which was also just very strange.

 

Fun little TV match and Guerrero's distraction gives the Radicalz the win.

[GSR]

Fast opening between Jericho and Malenko, and Y2J with an overhead suplex before levelling Malenko with a clothesline Dropkick by Scott and Malenko tags out to ‘the Crippler’. The Grandmaster with a dropkick off the middle, however the Radicalz slow their opponents down after Malenko knees Jericho in the back as he’s running the ropes and Benoit hotshots him across the top rope. Malenko whips Y2J into the corner and nails him with a running lariat. Pumphandle suplex by Saturn. Benoit lights Jericho up with a few knife edge chops and then whips him chest first into the turnbuckles. He goes for a belly to belly, however Jericho flips all the way over and hits a release German suplex. Hot tag to the Grandmaster who runs rough shot over the Radicalz. Sunset flip powerbomb to the floor on Benoit! Malenko accidentally clotheslines Saturn and GMS drops him with a superkick, before a double clothesline sends Saturn over the top rope and to the outside. Eddy Guerrero is up on the apron trying to stop ‘the worm’, but Chyna drags him down. As Eddy backs off, Malenko goes around to help only to get slugged by the ‘Ninth Wonder of the World’. Jericho and Malenko are now going at on the arena floor (and fight all the way to the back), while Too Cool takes it to Saturn on the inside. He ducks a double lariat attempt and Benoit grabs Scotty’s ankle pulling him to the outside. GMS with a DDT on Saturn, but at the same time Benoit launches his Too Cool partner into the metal ring steps. Top rope legdrop by the Grandmaster, however Eddy is back up on the apron and distracting the official. Diving headbutt from Benoit and Saturn rolls over to make the cover.

 

Really good TV match with non-stop action all the way. That sunset flip powerbomb to the floor that Benoit took was crazy! Although things will quickly change with the Radicalz, they’re still positioned fairly evenly at this point It’s cool too how they kept Guerrero as part of the group as he was effective here in his role as a second.

[Stiva]

Man, I had no idea Chyna was still with Jericho in the run-in to Mania. Really fun TV match that was so completely different to anything we were seeing on WWF TV, even just a few months prior and they were really smart in putting the Radicals in there with the guys they knew could go when given the chance. It's completely reinvigorated the midcard and their TV main events. I've always enjoyed Brian Christopher and Rikishi but I'm struck by how much I'm digging Scotty 2 Hotty on rewatch. Yeah, the Worm is beyond stupid but he's cutting a great pace, he matches up great opposite the Radicals and he just generally performs his role really well. I think 2 Cool as an act have done a lot for me over the past couple of months actually. About as hot a TV opener as you could hope for.

 

Also, I cracked up at Chyna following Jericho and Dean up the ramp too. It's like someone told her that she had to stay within 5 feet of him at all times or she'd lose her heat.