[2000-04-03-WWF-Raw] Tazz vs Chris Benoit

[soup23]

Tazz is still hanging around the upper mid card as evidenced by this match vs Benoit but while he does get some offense in here, the match is only four minutes long and Benoit wins with a single German. The writing was on the wall for Tazz at that moment as it looks like Benoit is continuing to be favored by upper management within the company. Saturn did provide himself useful by adding an assist in this match. *1/2

[Loss]

When your gimmick is that you are a short badass who throws suplexes, only for the company to sign a much better short badass who throws suplexes just after your much-hyped debut, it sort of limits your possible paths. Tazz was a better promo than Benoit, but I think that the Radicalz debut is absolutely part of the reason he started to stall around this time. But yeah, this is pretty much worked like a WCW C-show match until the booking kicks in, so Tazz was obviously in quicksand. Now he's programmed with another guy whose gimmick is that he's a short badass who throws suplexes. I guess they were thinking that maybe they could put together two guys who were floundering to see if they could get something out of each other.

[cheapshot]

Good stiff short TV match. We are only 4 months removed from Tazz's debut and he's already losing in short (pun intended) fashion. **

[GSR]

Intercontinental title match after Chris Benoit won the triple threat match at Wrestlemania. Benoit gets the better of a shoulder tackle, however Tazz catches a kick and plants ‘the Crippler’ with a head and arm suplex. Benoit fires back with a forearm and a stiff knife edge chop before a snap suplex gets him a two. He tosses Tazz to the outside and he crashes head first on the arena floor but fortunately doesn’t seem to hurt himself. ‘The Crippler’ follows him out and whips him into the barricade. Back inside and Benoit with a ‘Scorpion deathlock’, however he gives up on the hold when it looks like Tazz isn’t going to submit from it. Drop toe hold and he unloads with punches to the back of the head. Benoit whips Tazz chest first into the corner, grabs him around the waist for a German suplex, but he escapes his grasp and slaps on the Tazzmission. Perry Saturn sprints down to the ring and climbs to the top turnbuckle to try and save his fellow Radicalz I-C title, but Tazz spots him and shoves Benoit into the ropes causing Saturn to crotch himself. Belly to belly off the top with Saturn just about avoiding landing on his head. A clothesline sends Saturn over the top rope to the floor, but Benoit then ducks under a swinging right and catches him with a German suplex for the win. Tazz puts the Tazzmission on Saturn as he and Benoit are leaving, and after ‘the Crippler’ saves him, chases the pair of them to the back.

 

I had planned to stop watching WWF due to the time factor, but I’ll be digging into a few things that pique my interest. Surprisingly short match and Tazz also doing the job after a solitary German suplex; a clear case of one man’s stock who is on the rise and another’s who is on the decline.