[2000-04-20-WWF-Smackdown] HHH vs Tazz

[soup23]

Really nice recap to start things off showing HHH’s bad night. No mention of the pin in the main event either so I assume they have seen the errors of their ways in regards to that decision. The timing of the slap sequence between Stephanie and Linda was shockingly good for two ladies who have trouble with execution in front of the camera at times. HHH and Stephanie come out to the ring proper for a promo. Tazz comes out and cuts his best promo we have seen in WWF so far. This sets up a match later on in front of the Philly crowd. Pretty large slut chant for Steph when the action spills to the outside. This match helped showed the strengths of Tazz and he wasn’t completely buried at all. Tazz is able to get an overhead suplex nearfall. Tazz locks in the TazzMission when Steph distracts the ref leading to a lowblow from HHH and a quick pedigree. Tommy Dreamer runs out right then and whacks Tazz with a chair accidently. Tommy eats a pedigree too and HHH pins Tazz to win. **1/4

[Loss]

Oh boy. Well, first of all, the recap *is* excellent, and the HHH-Tazz match is a bit infamous for just being what it very obviously is. The big talk at the time was that in defeating Benoit in February and Tazz here, HHH became the linear world champion. I never cared about those things, and I don't even see this so much as HHH maneuvering as I do Vince maneuvering. Heyman needed a favor and Vince was happy to oblige, but boy did he ask for some stuff in return and come out ahead. Not that I blame him, but it's just an interesting chess game. The match itself is fine, but you gotta love HHH getting to treat Tazz's threats sarcastically, bury ECW in his promo, leave both him and Tommy Dreamer laying and get a pin without too much resistance. Vince was putting his champion over, damnit. It is what it is.

[GSR]

Video recap of Triple H’s ‘bad day from Monday night with his title match against Chris Jericho, the firing of Earl Hebner and then Linda McMahon announcing that Steve Austin will be in the Rock’s corner for Backlash. Lengthy in ring promo by ‘the Game’ where he again runs down what happened on Raw, before making a Rock vs Chris Jericho lumberjack match for tonight’s show. His brother-in-law Shane is carefully selecting the lumberjacks and they are taking care of business. He says there will be no more ‘bad days’, when he’s interrupted by Tazz’s music (to a decent pop). Tazz is wearing the ECW title and Michael Cole informs us that he won the belt on a day off last week. In a not-so-clear way he challenges Triple H, who accepts and tells him to bring that little belt he’s got around his waist and he’ll prove to everyone that ECW sucks.

 

As Tazz is making his entrance for the match, ‘the King’ says how people are treating what Tazz did as a big deal, but on his days off he used to go to ECW and kick some butt himself! Triple H and he square up to one another and there’s a pretty big size difference between them. Collar and elbow tie up, HHH backs Tazz into the corner, he goes to cheap shot him, but Tazz blocks and drops him with a right. A pair of lariats, T-Bone suplex attempt and Triple H with a series of elbows to the head for the break. After Tazz ducks a clothesline, he clotheslines ‘the Game’ over the top rope and to the outside. Bodyslam on the arena floor, but HHH reverses the whip into the ring steps and Tazz goes crashing into them. Suplex and a knee to the forehead for two. Tazz starts to fire back and a belly to back suplex. ‘The Game’ escapes a ‘head and arm Tazzplex’, but is then caught in a lovely Northern Lights for a near fall. ‘Tazzmission’ and Stephanie is up on the apron distracting the referee. A back kick low blow from Triple H and the pedigree. Tommy Dreamer’s arrived through the crowd and is having to be physically held back on the apron by the official. Triple H heads over and slugs him, sending Dreamer falling to the ring floor and resulting in referee Chioda getting bumped as well. Tommy collects a chair, swings it at ‘the Game’, but he pulls Tazz in front of him and he gets accidentally hit instead. Pedigree on Dreamer and the official comes round to count the pin on Tazz.

 

Similarly to the Awesome/Tazz ECW title change, it’s amazing that a match between the WWF champion and ECW champion ever took place, and on WWF TV too. This didn’t do much for me as I was bored by Triple H’s promo (made worse by the fact all he was doing was repeating what we’d just watched in the video package) and Tazz’s challenge wasn’t the clearest. Tazz got in more offense than I expected, and there was a real close near fall off the Northern Lights, so it wasn’t the complete squash that I was expecting. Dreamer takes a great looking pedigree mind.