[2002-12-23-WWE-Raw] Booker T & Goldust vs Christian & Chris Jericho

[FMKK]

Tag team titles on the line with Booker and Godust defending. The idea is that they're an odd couple and Goldust thinks he's the weak link in the team. Jericho cuts a heel promo on Goldust backstage, calling him a failure as a father, a husband and a performer. This has decent star power for the mid-2000s WWE tag scene.

 

I love how Dustin throws rights. Faces clean house and Goldust catapults Jericho over the top and onto Christian on the floor. Christian pops up to pull Goldust from the second rope to get the heat and Jericho works over his back. Booker plays a good second, getting the crowd clapping for Goldust to fight out of a hold. Crowd are really into the fired-up hope spots. Christian throws a really good slap. He always used it during his babyface ace run in ECW in 2009 and here he is as a heel 7 years before slapping Dustin in the corner. Hot tag to Booker gets a good pop and he cleans house. He pulls out an old fashioned noggin knocker and teases the spinarooni - he's very over at this point. Booker was never the best worker but he always made for an energetic presence during his best runs.

 

Booker actually gets a three-count off the scissors kick but Christian had his foot on the ropes so the ref corrects it. Back from the break and now the heat is on Booker. Good old fashioned heeling as Christian distracts the ref so he misses the hot tag. Draws good heat as the heels double stomp Booker. Jericho throws in the fake heel tags as well in a further old school touch. Booker almost gets the pin with what JR describes as the "Jack Brisco roll-up." Christian cinches in a chinlock to take control back. Goldy and Jericho are good on the apron at conducting the crowd during the down period. Dustin is an energetic hot tag, getting a double DDT, curtain call on Christian and then a ridiculously close near-fall on Jericho with a powerslam. Crowd are hot.

 

Goldust shows some great babyface resilience by sticking out the Walls of Jericho before Booker breaks it up. Chaos as Christian misses with a wild belt shot and Booker dumps him. Jericho throws him out before getting another super close near-fall with a roll-up with feet on the ropes. However, a Lionsault lands on knees and Goldust rolls Jericho up for the win in 14:40 or so.

 

I watched this after hearing people making the case for Dustin in the GWWE poll and he is excellent here. Great as a babyface in peril, good at conducting the crowd from the apron and showed really strong fire as the underdog out to prove himself. But really, I thought everyone was really good in the this match. Four experienced guys having an old school tag match with all the old tricks thrown in: missed hot tags, heel fake tags, double heat section, feet on the ropes and a hot crowd. This is really fun and its a pity that both of these teams didn't have much longer runs.

 

***3/4

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Excellent match. Pretty much a PPV quality match on free TV. Amazing how much drama they could build around a simple and effective promo from Jericho. Dustin was great, but I thought Jericho was excellent as well. From memory, this stood out at the time because there wasn't a lot of good wrestling on RAW compared to Smackdown, but also because it was more of an old-school style tag match compared to the Smackdown Six style. It holds up amazingly well all these years later.

[EnviousStupid]

Hidden gem. Probably the best match from Raw to happen all year. It's also now my go-to for Dustin's career performance, delivering on incredible shines, face in peril and hot tag segments. I can't recall ever seeing a tag match where one person does all of these roles in a singular match to such a high standard. Watch it.