[2001-01-28-WWF-Philadelphia, PA] Steve Austin & The Rock vs Triple H & Chris Benoit (No DQ)

[Migs]

The pop here for the Rock is pretty insane, bigger than the one Austin gets. Triple H and the Rock start, and of course they have a nice sequence because they've done this literally hundreds of times by this point. Austin and Benoit go pretty hard, busting out a superplex five minutes into a house show match, in case you're wondering why these guys had neck problems. Trips is avoiding and antagonizing Austin here, which is fun. Nice pop when Austin finally gets some shots in. They take things out to the crowd for some brawling, although it's not a very long stretch. Otherwise, this is a relatively tame No DQ match. Longish heat segment on Austin. Hot tag to the Rock, and they go pretty quickly to the finish, which is the Rock Bottom on Benoit. Solid match. If you're curious about what a WWF house show felt like at the time, this match of the three from January is probably the one to check out.

[zep81]

If you got this off DM, it was my upload and yea it's a pretty fun match.

[soup23]

Tag match looks better on paper than the big 8 man at MSG as heel side looks a bit more balanced. You already know who is taking the pinfall though. All four work hard throughout this match and the Benoit vs Austin interactions in particular jumped off the screen to me. Tensions were going to boil over between HHH and Austin and that is the finale of them firing away leaving Rock and Benoit alone in the ring. I like that Benoit fought out the People’s Elbow attempt but as expected he falls to the Rock Bottom seconds later. A good house show overall. ***1/2 (7.1)