Resident Evil Posted May 29, 2006 Report Share Posted May 29, 2006 Inspired by the awesomeness of the Benoit vs Finlay Judgement Day I decided I wanted to make a post of my favourite Benoit matches ever. If I don't get too lazy I will do this by category such as Favourite WWF, WCW, ECW, other, UWA, NJPW and of course Stampede. Than I will attempt to do an overall favourite category. Of course there are several matches where I really couldn't put one match in front of another but just did so because I had to. Yeah, life is tough. WP's Favourite Benoit WWF matches 1)Benoit vs Austin from Smackdown in Edmonton, Alberta Canada This match which actually has 5 mnutes taken out from it makes it to first spot primarily for the reason that it has one of the greatest face comebacks of all time. Austin tries to embarass Benoit repeatably in his hometown with several different spots but Benoit has nothing of that and comes back with a charactor fitting comeback that only he charactor wise could pull off -- The 10 german suplexes. 2)Benoit vs Brock Lesnar Smackdown WWF world title match I have gone on record as saying this is one of the best matches of all time from anywhere and I truly believe it. The flow is as perfect as it gets, the intensity is off the charts, the wrestling is smart and the ending was absolutely terrific storywise, memoarable wise and charactor wise. Jumping jimminy crickets, what an ending. 3)Benoit vs Kurt Angle Royal Rumble I don't think people realise how brilliant this match truly is. Very smart work complete with one of Benoit's best diving headbutts of all time. 4)Benoit vs Fit Finaly Judgement Day 06 Brutal, oh man this was brutal. Kneedrops to the face!! This is like 2 hardcore hockey fighters going at it. Struggle, cool moves and a bunch of little things make this terrific. Notice how in the beginning mat portions how every time they go from point A to point B to point C and so on it makes so much sense. Extremely cool sequences around the flying headbutt and enzurguri sections of the match. To appreciate this match at its fullest I believe one has to change their mindset some watch closely at what's being done. Very good distinct charactors in this bout. 5)Benoit/Angle vs Rey Mysterio Jr./Edge No Mercy This is still the best tag match I've seen on US soil. Maybe not Canadian though because I think the Viet Cong Express vs Owen Hart/Basserb matches may be ahead of it. I love this match especially the flow of it which I thought was strung together very well. A lot of great nearfalls such as one of all time favourites where Edge small packaged Angle. That was a thing of beauty. This kind of reminds me of the great Japanese action filled tags. 6)Benoit vs Randy Orton Raw WWF world title match 04 It says a lot for this match when I can watch it opposite 93 All Japan and actually like this better. This match is practically perfect. Intensity filled, well played charactors, tons of payoff from Summerslam and smart work. Still the best Benoit vs Orton match. 7)Benoit vs Kane Raw World title defence by Benoit The best of the Chris Benoit title defences. Once again the free Tv match is better than the PPV bout. This had a tremendous flow and was a great blowoff for the Bad Blood bout. Intense, very smart work and they even managed to work in a couple of stipulations. 8)Benoit/Angle vs Edge/Rey 2/3 falls 11/7/02 Smackdown Didn't quite hit the level of No Mercy but it was still exceptional in its all right. Action filled the whole way with a ton of cool looking offence and counters. 9)Benoit vs Chris Jericho Royal Rumble Ladder Match The best ladder match I've ever seen simply because it has the best flow to it and feels like a fight complete with some innovative looking spots 10)Benoit vs Jericho Backlash I go back and forth with this and the 2 out of 3 falls match at Summerslam. The highlight of this is the fight feel it had going for it. That's what they went for and they more than succeeded. 11)Benoit vs Jericho Summerslam 2/3 falls The funniest thing about this match is that I was watching Stampede at the time and I was thinking that the ending of one of the Smith vs Benoit bouts would be perfect for this encounter. And than they go ahead and use it!!!! The match is a little anticlimatic but in retrospect it never was the blowoff. 12) Benoit vs Shawn Michaels Showdown in the Desert A really great buildup in this one so it was too bad it cutoff short. I would say this hit the 4 star mark with 3 stars alone given to Benoit for knocking Michaels off the top rope and of course for his unbelievable superkick sell 13)Benoit vs Rey Mysterio Jr. Smackdown Their only televised match ever and yeah; it was a ring a ding dong dandy. Benoit comes up with an awesome new counter to Rey's 619 and hits a super flying headbutt emphasing the point that this match was truly something special. Really awesome stuff. 14)Benoit/Jericho vs Austin/HHH Monday Night Raw 5/01 Probably the most emotional tag the WWF has put on in rescent years. I thought the match played out really well in that aspect. 15)Benoit vs Booker T Match #2 of the Best of 5000 This was my fav of the series. I loved absolutely everything in it from the selling to the flow to the offence to the way Benoit transistioned through chops! 16)Benoit vs Kurt Angle Unforgiven Heel vs heel and a completely different match than the Rumble storywise and charactor wise which is pretty impressive. Wrestled just the way it should've been at the time. 17)Benoit vs A-Train Tournament match Benoit has one of the best short matches I've ever seen against the most underappreciated grappler of all time. This is the match has the spot where Benoit is kicking A-Train and than proceeds to run the ropes. A-Train showing how he is such a monstor has none of that crap and bycicle kicks Benoit in the face. That's the moment that reinforced my belief that Kawada vs Benoit could be the best thing ever. 18)Benoit vs Rock 8/15/02 Smackdown At this point Benoit and Rock's chemistry was very high. Really good flow in this combined with tons of excitement and a superly riduclously cool revenge sequence spot in the beginning of the match. 19)Benoit/Cena vs Lesnar/Rhyno/Morgan/Show 1/22/04 Smackdown I think this is Rhyno's strongest match ever with his best preformance inside the ring that I have seen. Lost in the shuffle and besides Downhome's appreciation for the bout I think this is really overlooked. Action packed. 20)Benoit vs Batista 1/05 Raw Here because this is an example of how unselfish Benoit is as a wrestler. A really good match and this although not as well known did the same thing to Batista as Bret vs Austin did to Austin in that it helped Batista's career advance. This put over Batista LEGIT as a monstor 21)Benoit/Jericho vs Dudleys vs Hardys vs Edge/Christian TLC III 5/24/01 Smackdown Here for the drama which was done well. They fit a story into here to make it into the best TLC bout ever. Of course you have all your career ending spots too. The conchairto spot alone gets this match on my list. 22)Benoit/Angle vs Eddie/Chaveo 10/17/02 Smackdown This and the following match kind of blend together on me 23)Benoit/Angle vs Eddie/Chavo 11/28/02 Smackdown This and the preceding match kind of blend together on me 24)Benoit/Eddie vs Rock/Edge 8/1/02 Smackdown THis was right after Benoit and Eddie jumped from Raw to Smackdown. The match itself is wrestled perfectly and its only flaw is that gets cut off shortly. Classic heels cut off the faces stuff -- just done really well with nice timing and cool spots. 25)Benoit vs Austin 11/20/00 Raw Smart work and the match where afterwards Austin just tore it up wrestling wise. Man, Benoit and Austin had chemistry. It didn't even matter who was face or who was heel. 26)Benoit vs Angle 30 minute submission match 4/29/01 Backlash Just so different and an interesting match to think about. 27)Benoit/Angle vs Cena/Kidman Smackdown 02 Lost in the big shuffle of the Smackdown six is this doozy of a match. Action packed as all the matches were at the time. The thing I liked about it is that I never lost track of the fact that Cena and Kidman were the underdogs but yet the bout was still competitive. 28)Benoit vs Orton No Holds Barred Man, why can't we get Benoit and Regal fighting this long in a match? This bout was fought in the Benoit vs Regal style. We gotta get some kind of name for that. 29)Benoit vs Regal 5/8?/06 Velocity Loved this. Regal gets some nice nearfalls in and the offence itself is off the charts awesome. Regal counters the dragon suplex attempt and I think I'm in some kind of All Japan/lucha hybrid fantasy. 30)First ever Money in the Bank Wrestlemania XXI Benoit reopens his wound by doing a diving headbutt off the top rope. He than counters a Kane chokeslam by dong the rapid headbutts. He than sells an injured arm by BITING the mat. Yeah, you better believe this match is going to get on this list. 31)Benoit vs Nathon Jones Smackdown 11/20/03 An example of how a smaller guy guy can win a match but in doing so not make the bigger guy look weak. Really good little bout complete with a spectacular top rope dropkick by Benoit that catches Jones as he's getting up from the mat! Looked totally realistic 32)Benoit vs Jericho 5/4/00 Smackdown IC title match Because I'm a fan of that sequence which finishes off with Benoit tossing Jericho over the top rope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted May 29, 2006 Report Share Posted May 29, 2006 I may be insane and remembering wrong but weren't some of his matches with Rikishi in 2000 over the I.C. title really good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted May 29, 2006 Report Share Posted May 29, 2006 No love for his IC title match with RVD? The match had rolling Northern Light Suplexes with the arm trapped, Anderson style. Great shoulder work in that match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resident Evil Posted May 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2006 I may be insane and remembering wrong but weren't some of his matches with Rikishi in 2000 over the I.C. title really good?Yes, you would be correct. Coffey, I like the RVD match a good deal (Northern Rolling Lights!)but it just didn't click enough to be one of my favs. I like the Raw match they had a lot better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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