HHH v Chris Jericho

[Loss]

HHH v Chris Jericho - WWF RAW 06/14/00

 

In an interesting bit of trivia that nearly everyone has forgotten, this segment drew an 8.4 quarter hour, tying it with the "This Is Your Life" segment in September of 1999 between Rock and Foley, and putting it in the top five quarter hours of the era. Perhaps that's a reflection of how red hot Chris Jericho was at the time, as he gets a Rock or Austin-level pop for his arrival, and the crowd completely turns on the show when HHH wins, as I'll explain later with Benoit v Matt Hardy. This is probably the Flair/Steamboat of relatively short TV matches, as they toss everything out there in a very short period of time, but they establish a pace that compliments the match well, and nothing seems rushed, just energetic. Jericho does all sorts of moves, a few of which he doesn't pull out in every match -- a lariat, a missile dropkick, flying forearm, facebuster, spinning heel kick and even a top rope huracanrana! HHH even shows more tenacity and heel tendencies than he often did, perhaps because he's feeding off the rabid crowd. Jericho eats *nine* consecutive shoulderblocks in the corner by HHH, which are delivered just about as quickly as humanly possible. HHH also uses a DDT, which is rare for him, and a sleeper, which is terrific in the context of this match because Jericho is selling it perfectly and the crowd is so behind him. Jericho counters the pedigree to the Walls, but HHH punches out, which causes Jericho to bounce backwards into the turnbuckle and fall forward on Hunter's crotch. They lifted the Sting spot, and it definitely worked! HHH tries to cheat by using the belt and relying on interference from Stephanie, and Jericho thwarts both attempts, before HHH sneaks in a belt shot and finishes him off with the pedigree. If this crowd was a balloon, this finish was a needle.

 

Watching the crowd support Jericho as much as they do, and watching HHH seemingly be willing to do anything to make him look good -- including taking the top rope huracanrana -- except lose to him, makes it seem like they're building toward a huge Jericho win in the future, but that wasn't to be, and that's sad. I think it's easy to forget how over and how poised he was to be a top babyface at that point in time, and how the company reacted to that sums up the problems they've had over the last four years quite nicely.

 

***1/4