HHH v Chris Jericho

[Loss]

HHH v Chris Jericho - WWF Smackdown 04/05/01

 

My review last summer at TSM:

 

Chris Jericho v HHH ? WWF Smackdown 04/05/01

WWF Intercontinental title

With Rock sidelined and Austin?s issues with Undertaker and Kane old news, it would have only made sense to elevate Jericho and Chris Benoit, but sense meant little to the company at this point. Jericho does look strong against HHH and even kicks out after William Regal interferes and it appears that the match is over. However, the booking, as was par the course at this point, would negate any strengths the work could accomplish, and Jericho spent the next two months spinning his wheels in a revenge feud with Regal while HHH had absolutely no reason to win the Intercontinental title.

Revised:

 

In all other televised HHH/Jericho matches I've covered so far, they've started off with Jericho dominating the early stages, but here, we see HHH take control first; perhaps he felt he needed to look really good early because the bookers were feeding Jericho so many hope spots later. Regardless of why, it hurts the match, as the gap between the two has grown wider and wider over the previous year, and the crowd has less reason to care about this match than they would have just 12 months earlier. If it shows you how much heat he has lost, when HHH is in control, the crowd chants "Slut!" at Stephanie instead of "Y2J!" at Jericho, but to the credit of the workers, they eventually turn that around. They miss an opportunity, however, when Jericho misses a missile dropkick and starts selling his knee, only for HHH to never capitalize on it.

 

Regal comes in with a chair, but Jericho stops him and delivers the chairshot himself. Jericho then applies the Walls on HHH, and HHH is tapping, but Stephanie comes in. So, Jericho lets go of that hold and applies the move to Stephanie, but HHH hits him with a chair and everyone expects the match to be over, but Jericho kicks out. It's the best false finish of the match, but it's really only a good idea if the plan is to put Jericho over, because the crowd starts rallying in that direction, obviously thinking they're about to see what they gave up on long ago. HHH quickly kills that with the pedigree though, and in the spring of 2001, the space between HHH, Austin and everyone else couldn't have been greater, to a point where the product suffered miserably. With Rock sidelined and Austin?s issues with Undertaker and Kane old news, it would have only made sense to elevate Jericho and Chris Benoit, but sense meant little to the company at this point. Jericho spent the next two months spinning his wheels in a revenge feud with Regal while HHH had absolutely no reason to win the Intercontinental title.