[2000-05-25-WWF-Smackdown] Chris Jericho vs Hardcore Holly vs Val Venis

[soup23]

Jericho’s shirt is atrocious here. I don’t remember it so they must have cut their losses quickly. Good action here from these three. Jericho and Val bring the stiffness with some brutal chops against Holly. They create a union at the beginning of the match that quickly goes awry. I thought this made Holly and Venis look more motivated better than anything else so far in this mini push for them. Jericho in particular was more on point than usual as he was the ring leader for most of the action. Jericho locks on that brutal Walls over the ropes and Venis comes in with a nice legdrop to stop that. Jericho is able to get the lionsault on Val but Holly comes with the guillotine legdrop and gains the win in a surprise. **1/2

[GSR]

Number one contender’s match for the Intercontinental championship, with the winner getting a title match against the champion Monday night on Raw. Jericho is running through his catchphrases when he’s interrupted by Bob Holly’s music. Venis and Y2J team up on Holly early, taking it in turns to light up his chest with knife edge chops. Double backdrop and as Venis makes the cover, Jericho pulls him off. The two of them start trading punches and so much for that short lived unison! Holly nails Val in the back, and he collides with Y2J sending him tumbling out of the ring. Reverse atomic drop, a big powerbomb and Jericho is back just in time to break up the three count. He returns to blistering Holly with those chops and a bit of ground and pound. Venis tosses Jericho to the outside, hooks ‘Hardcore’ with a Fisherman suplex, but Y2J grabs his leg from the arena floor and pulls him out to join him. Baseball slide dropkick by Holly. Val reverses a whip into the ring post and Holly is the one who goes flying into it. Jericho with some knee strikes before throwing Venis back into the ring. Missile dropkick for two. Holly gets a bit of revenge, slapping Y2J’s chest, when from behind, Val catches him with a belly to back suplex for a near fall. Reverse crossbody off the middle by Jericho, Val drops an elbow, but Y2J moves and he hits ‘Hardcore’ instead. Bulldog on Venis, and while he’s trying to regain his bearings on the apron, Jericho levels him with a springboard dropkick. Huracanrana by Holly is blocked and (with him on his shoulders) Y2J walks over to the ropes for a rope assisted ‘Walls of Jericho’ (think an inverted Tarantula). A Venis legdrop puts a stop to that and he follows up with a running lariat in the corner. ‘Blue Thunder Driver’ for two. Jericho ducks the clothesline and Val’s dropkick doesn’t connect as he holds on to the ropes. Lionsault, however Holly with an ‘Alabama Jam’ to the back of Jericho’s neck and he covers Venis himself for the win and the IC title shot.

 

Good match with Venis and Holly both working hard and making the most of this little push that they’re getting; almost as if they were trying to show that they’re more than capable of holding their own and hanging with the big boys. Pretty physical in places with the way they were laying those chops in and really liked that rope assisted ‘Walls’. Surprise finish as well with Holly grabbing the win (and even busting out an ‘Alabama Jam’ in the process).