[2000-04-10-WWF-Raw] HHH vs Taka Michinoku

[soup23]

A good resume builder for HHH. The match only goes five minutes but HHH does show ass for Taka and sell from his kicks as well as being surprised at the amount of fight he is in. APA is out at ringside and that was effective in getting Shane away from the proceedings and led to the hectic nearfall where the crowd honestly bought Taka of all people pinning HHH. Hebner was maybe a little too assertive in this match shoving Shane to the ground and really going after HHH, but this was clearly a HHH Flair tribute and in regards to his canon approach at that style, this was as successful as I can ever remember him being. ***

[Loss]

This is a tremendous segment, and my take on it has always been not so much that it was a triumph as a match, although it's definitely a good match. The bigger triumph is that matches like this can only happen when a wrestling company has earned lots of good will with its audience. This could not be replicated in a time where people think the top stars can never lose to nearly the same level of success.

 

A lot was made of HHH's decline when he returned after his quad tear. To me, he was still pretty much the same HHH as a worker, but the difference was that the company had lost some of the good will by that time. So HHH vs Taka is a match you can pull off during a good period because while HHH was very strong at this point, he wasn't really portrayed as anything close to invincible. It was conceivable for HHH to lose in a way that mattered. That wasn't the case as much by 2002, so getting the crowd to bite hard on one nearfall, which was how this match was structured, was going to be much more of an uphill battle.

 

So yes, good match, but more than that, a credit to the faith the viewing audience had in the WWF at the time. You may not get it when you want it, but in the end, the guy climbing the ladder made it to the top. The guy trying to win the title against all odds became champion. The good guys won. Somewhere along the way, that unspoken bond with the audience was broken, which makes this match clicking something that is very uniquely 2000 WWF. ***

[Robert S]

Fun match, though not worked the way I hoped it would be (champion working a guy several levels in ranking below him), at least in the second half of the match. It turned a bit too much in HHH vs. the world (Kaientai, APA, Hebner) for my taste.

By the way: what was going on with Hebner doing a David Manning tribute peformance here?

[ohtani's jacket]

This was all right. Won't make you forget Bret vs. Waltman in a hurry. Decent TV segment but the match was unspectacular and was basically storyline progression. Nothing special.

[TravJ1979]

Great Booking.

[GSR]

Triple H is to defend the WWF title against an unnamed opponent and is accompanied to the ring by Stephanie and Shane McMahon. The big screen shows Taka Michinoku and Shoichi Funaki entering through some double doors and HHH has an almighty smirk on his face; a smirk that quickly changes to dread when seconds later through those same double doors walk the Acolytes. Poor Lillian makes a mess of Taka’s surname on the ring introductions! The Acolytes immediately chase after Shane who high tails it out of there all the way to the back, and the APA then keep watch at the bottom of the entrance ramp to make sure there isn’t any interference. As Triple H is arguing over something with Earl Hebner, Taka levels him with a flying forearm and unloads in the corner. Headscissors takedown followed by a spinning heel kick. Dropkick to the face of the seated ‘Game’ for an early near fall. Tornado DDT and again Triple H is able to kick out in time. Taka telegraphs a backdrop and Hunter counters with a facebuster before clotheslining his opponent over the top rope to the outside. Back inside and HHH gets a two count after a high knee to the floor. He stomps a mud hole into his opponent in the corner and Earl Hebner physically pulls him off as he’s ignoring his instructions to break. Hunter and ‘hard man’ Earl get into a shoving contest with ‘the Game’ clearly not happy that he put his hands on him. Taka blocks a right and fires back with some slaps across the chops. Triple H stops the comeback with a shot to the throat and then tosses Taka to the floor. He hurls him into the ring steps before throwing him back inside. Hebner is on him again, and as the two continue to argue on the outside, Funaki with a baseball slide dropkick sending HHH crashing into the Acolytes. The APA attack Triple H and a ‘clothesline from hell’ by Bradshaw. Hebner is now having words with JBL, but as he’s doing so, Funaki with a missile dropkick and a moonsault bodyblock from Taka. Awesome near fall as ‘the Game’ just gets his shoulder up at the last moment. Shane McMahon is back and he’s got Vince with him. The Acolytes head up the entrance way to confront them as Vince insists he isn’t trying to provoke them. The moment their backs are turned though, they’re ambushed by the Big Bossman and Bull Buchanan. In the ring Taka with a missile dropkick of his own, but Hunter blocks the ‘Michinoku Driver’ attempt. The Frankensteiner is countered into a powerbomb and Triple H with the pedigree for the win.

 

Fun match and the size difference wasn’t anywhere near as much of an issue as I thought it might be. Smartly booked too with the use of the APA to where it looked like the unthinkable may actually happen; especially on that one awesome near fall off the moonsault bodyblock. My lone criticism was Earl Hebner who seemed to think he was Superman with the way he shoved down Shane at the start and then was manhandling and getting in Hunter’s face. Stay in the background Earl and leave the action to the wrestlers!