Chris Benoit v Chris Jericho

[Loss]

Chris Benoit v Chris Jericho - WWF Smackdown 05/04/00

 

Note to anyone who says Chris Benoit has no charisma -- watch this match! It's one of Benoit's more animated performances, as he argues with the ref, gives an incredibly surly look to the crowd when they start chanting "Benoit sucks!" and does all sorts of trash talking. Jericho is just as great a babyface ... in some ways. While I think the finish was intended as a payback spot, since they played the clip from Backlash of Jericho getting DQ'd for hitting Benoit with a belt, it didn't completely come off that way, as you saw the babyface cheat without being provoked and win the match. That's really my only complaint here, aside from the fact that these two have been wrestling each other on and off for ten years and we have yet to see that 30-minute match from them with the world title on the line that we've been waiting for all this time, and we probably never will. You'd never know it by watching these guys in 2000, though, as both were very over with the live crowds, especially Jericho, and both look destined for superstardom.

 

The match feels a little rushed because of the time constraints, but they do everything they can with the few minutes they have. A nose-to-nose staredown, resulting in a shoving match, resulting in dual slaps, resulting in a takedown and back and forth brawl that spills outside the ring starts the match before they come back in and manage to get in some cool spots, most notably is Benoit blocking the quebrada attempt by catching him off the middle rope in the rolling Germans, and even bridging into a pinfall afterward! It's rare he does that in Titan. His nose is also bleeding a gusher, as Cole explains that it was broken at Backlash when Jericho hit him with the belt. The blood fits the aggression nicely, as Jericho wins a slugfest by kneeing Benoit in the face repeatedly, which looks pretty painful, and finally drops Benoit with a facebuster. They exchange some *hard* chops back and forth, and we'd eventually see at least one good working sequence, with Benoit reversing an Irish whip into an attempted airplane spin, which Jericho cradled out of. This match pretty much symbolizes their time in WWE perfectly, as they do the best with what they have, but need more push from McMahon to really do everything of which they're capable.