Forgotten Favorites 06.11.09: Raw Is War 2000 - Triple H vs. Taka Michinoku

Posted by Jim Grimm on 06.11.2009

Fresh off of a WrestleMania title defense, HHH stepped in the ring for his most EVIL challenger yet. Was the Game successful in his defense or could Taka score the upset of the century?

Welcome back, wrestling fans. We're fresh off of what I would classify as a hell of an entertaining Extreme Rules PPV this past Sunday. A little part of me died inside when Orton failed to kick out of the Batista Bomb, but I was more than reinvigorated by the pure awesomeness of CM Punk cashing in his title and possibly setting the stage for a heel turn. I wish I didn't miss Mysterio-Jericho, but all in all, I witnessed a solid night of wrestling action and I didn't even have to pay for it. The internet rules.

If you're a first-timer, let me apologize in advance. This column owns on all kinds of levels, and the shock of its extreme ownage may cause temporary loss of vision, shitting of the pants, or, in some cases, a return to see what I have to offer next week. Anyway, here's the deal:

The evil master of wrestling history, who rules from his titanic towers of evil, takes great joy in robbing his followers of cherished memories. He has even gone so far as to wave his billion-dollar wand on more than one occasion in an attempt to completely erase particular pockets of time. Well, we, the people, have refused to stand for such injustices, and as a result, I have been called upon to right the wrongs of time.

This week's match has been a long time coming. Props go to whoever suggested this in the comments a few weeks back. I'd give you a decent portion of my 411 paycheck if I actually received a 411 paycheck. Instead, all I can say is good call, dude.

So ... who wants great wrestling?


Raw Is War - April 10, 2000
World Wrestling Federation Championship
Triple H vs. Taka Michinoku

HOW IT WENT DOWN

It went down ... abruptly.

On April 2nd, 2000, history was made at WrestleMania. The E's sixteenth installment, referred to as WrestleMania 2000 (because 2000 is cool!!!), marked the first time in history that a heel walked out of the year's biggest event as the World Champion. Triple H, fresh off of retiring the guy who currently holds the prestigious TNA Championship, had expected to face that year's Royal Rumble winner, The Rock. However, through a series of twists and turns and unnecessary returns to the ring, Mick Foley and The Big Show were added to the equation.

And so history was made when, for the first time in WrestleMania history, the WWE Championship was not decided in a one-on-one contest, but rather a Fatal Fourway with elimination rules. The history continued when, much to the extreme confusion of nearly every wrestling fan on the planet, Triple H scored the last elimination over The Rock and retained his championship. Of course, the night came to a pop-happy end when The Rock landed The People's Elbow on HHH's Billion Dollar Investment, er, Princess. But the E had seriously deviated from its regular course in giving the win to Triple H that night, thus solidly establishing HHH as one of the company's top figures for years to come.

History was also made earlier in the night at WrestleMania when the first ever Hardcore Battle Royal of its kind was held for the Hardcore Championship. The match was as star-studded as they come, featuring the likes of Pete Gas and Headbanger Thrasher, but there were fewer stars bigger than a couple of guys who added some international flavor to the hardcore goings-on. Taka Michinoku and Sho Funaki, known collectively as the awesome force called Kaientai, were two of the favorites going into the match, considering they were mighty evil indeed. Funaki represented his purely evil tandem well by chalking up an impressive Hardcore Title reign during the match, which lasted all of twenty seconds (but twenty evil seconds, of course). In the end, Hardcore Holly was able to score the final pinfall before the fifteen minute mark (arguably) and secured the victory and the Hardcore Championship. Kaientai would have to look elsewhere for championship gold.

On the SmackDown following WrestleMania, the pursuit of gold continued. Dean Malenko put his Light Heavyweight Title up for grabs in one-on-one action against the very man who was the first to hold the title, Taka Michinoku. In a match that would've been insanely awesome had it occurred in a different year on a different broadcast in a different company, Malenko successfully defended his strap against Michinoku.

And so when you can't bring home the Hardcore or Light Heavyweight Titles, you only have one option left: you go for the big one. In a twist of fate that had nothing to do with emo blogs or your slutty girlfriend getting you fired, Triple H was in a giving mood on the following edition of Raw. Fans were told that Triple H would be in action and defending his championship on the televised broadcast, but up until the time of the match itself, The Game's opponent remained a mystery.

This week we pick up just as Triple H is making his way to the ring for his title defense, his opponent still a mystery. Was he prepared for the challenge he was set to face? Was he ready to come face to face with ... EVIL?





WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

I'll admit up front that I'm not a diehard Michinoku mark, and thus I haven't been exposed to much of the dude's work outside of North America. However, I did, to a moderately markish extent, follow Taka's career during his stay in what was then the World Wrestling Federation. And havin personally witnessed the peaks and valleys of Taka's American wrestling career, from becoming the E's first Light Heavyweight Champion to the attempted, uh, "dismembering" of Val Venis, I can confidently say that this particular Monday night against Triple H was the highlight of Michinoku's performances for American fans. To the best of my knowledge (and as far as the archived results I've researched have shown), this was Taka's first and last shot at the most noteworthy wrestling championship in the world. Of course, Monday Night Raw is far from Pay-Per-View, and memorable title matches usually clock in somewhere past the ten-minute-mark, but I'm not saying we've got a Michaels-Hart or Angle-Benoit on our hands here. This match isn't memorable because it was a great title match. It's memorable because it was a Taka Michinoku title match.

To be fair, no one thought Taka had a snowball's chance in hell of winning the belt. Even in my markish naivete, I knew that there was no way the little Japanese dude with the goofy dubbed voice was going to score an upset over The Game. But the part that still blows my mind about this match is the amount of dominating ofense that Taka was able to get in. Sure, the match didn't last too long, and yeah, the H's was able to change his fortunes rather quickly and seal the deal with the Pedigree, but Taka OWNS the first few minutes of this match. And he does it without any interference on his behalf. You'd expect that any legitimate offense that Taka is able to sneak in would be as a result o assistance given by Funaki or the hired hands standing at ringside in the APA. And yeah, these outside parties do end up getting involved and helping out the challenger, but long before that, Taka straight up makes HHH his bitch. Right hands in the corner, spinning heel kicks, and downright ownage of the man who has supposedly buried more men than cancer.

And from one supposed bury-crazy locker room general to another, this match makes a case for the pro-business mindset of not only THE ONE TRUE DESTROYER but also energy-drink and beer-gut enthusiast, John Bradshaw Layfield. Long before he became the longest reigning champion in SmackDown history (well, uh, depending on who you ask), John Layfield was simply Bradshaw, and Bradshaw simply wanted to get drunk and fight. While his ascent to the main event would come four years later, Bradshaw was still in damned fine standing with the company at the time of this Taka-HHH title match, long serving as an enforcer of particular locker room etiquette for some of the younger superstars. Call it being a natural leader, or call it giving the Undertaker a hell of a handjob; whatever the case, Bradshaw is one of the only wrestlers in the E's history that I'm pretty sure Vince McMahon has never and will never fire. Despite failing to break into the main event in the face of several opportunities from creative (see also: Billy Gunn Syndrome), Bradhsaw's position in the company has always been safe.

Now I said pro-business "mindset" but a more accurate term might be pro-business "utilization." Although the man's work over the last few years, from commentary to actual wrestling, has proven to have the industry's best interests at heart, JBL's stroke in 2000 was no match for the pull he has now. Nevertheless, creative's use of Bradshaw, along with his tag partner Faarooq, was a benefit to the entire roster of WWE during the times of the APA.


Nearly everyone on the roster entered the APA's "office" at some point

When Bradshaw and Faarooq were paired up as a demonic tandem led by the Jackal, later to be taken under the Satanic wing of the Undertaker, hopes were likely not too high for the two's creative future. But once the E allowed Bradshaw and Simmons to simply be themselves, a whole new window of creativity was opened for the E's writing staff. If a wrestler was presented with seemingly insurmountable odds, all he needed to do was pay a visit to the APA and hire some back-up. And it didn't matter whether their client was a face or a heel; as long as they got their money for beer, the APA was glad to kick someone's ass. They could be thrown into the middle of any storyline on the broadcast and it made perfect sense. Not only that ... these dudes were over.

Just look at this match. You don't need to have been watching at the time to figure out that Taka wasn't necessarily that big of a threat to Triple H's title reign. But all the little dude needed was to have the APA come stand at ringside with him and, hot damn, we've got instant credibility. With their massive overness, their total badassery, and the creative twist they added to any angle they were involved with, the APA were a vital part of the E's creative developments in the latter half of the Attitude Era.


WHY IT ISN'T REMEMBERED

To say that Taka Michinoku was a significant figure in the history of Vince McMahon's entertainment-fied world of sports would be, uh, a lie. When it comes to making history in the E, Taka's lone accomplishment stands as being the first man to hold the E's first officially recognized Light Heavyweight Championship. And to that you might say, "Wow! What a worthless accomplishment!" and sadly, your light heavyweight apathy would be pretty damn close to Vinny Mac's. Although they're in the same cool little club of championship cherry poppers, I've got a feeling that Taka's historical recognition will never, ever match that of Pat Patterson. And really, given the WWE's history with separate weight classes, it's hard to argue against Taka's inaugural title reign being swept under the rug.

I won't say that the E correctly booked its combatants in the LHW Title's division, but given the way they did book it, I'm having a hell of a time trying to see any reason to really remember it. The first guy to hold a title belt is usually somebody significant and worthwhile to history, even when the title is less than-prestigious (Bulldog as European Champ, Foley as Hardcore Champ, etc), but the LHW Title is so less-than-prestigious that the E has gone out of its way to completely erase it from history. Taka was a fine choice to be the first man to carry the title and lead a division of action that had previously been unseen on the E's broadcasts. The only problem was that the division never really came into existence. The E was never able to focus on more than one light heavyweight at a time and that was always the LHW Champion, provided the E actually, y'know, bothered to book the title on television. So while guys like Taka, Dean Malenko, and Jerry Lynn were all excellent choices for guys to lead a light heavyweight division, the long delays between title defenses, the lack of competition, and Gillberg were all detrimental enough to make the belt completely worthless to the E's history.

You may refer to what just occurred as an off-topic rant, but I feel like it proves my point about Taka. While this week's title match against Triple H was certainly the highlight of Taka's career, it was his reign as the first Light Heavyweight Champion that stands as the most historically significant of his accomplishments. And when your most historic contribution to a company is being the first to hold a complete joke of a belt that is pissed on and eventually put out of its misery in four years, well then, you better not count on the E calling the house anytime soon about an exclusive Legends contract.


Hall of Fame bound? UN-INDEED!

This match ain't hurting just because of Taka's lack of historical worth to the E. It might be because the events that transpired in this Monday Night Raw title match were eerily similar to another match involving nearly all of the same participants.

Behold, Triple H, eyeing the hired services of the APA at ringside, defends his championship against a foreigner on Raw Is War!

So when did this match take place? ONE WEEK after HHH vs. Taka! Of course, Jericho was a shit ton more over than Taka was, and the fast count for the "victory" was not a factor in the match held a week prior. But other than that, we've got near mirror images. We've got an on-the-spot televised title defense for Triple H against a challenger who is clearly the underdog, an underdog that is so clearly disadvantaged that he has hired the services of Bradshaw and Faarooq in an effort to secure a title victory. We've even got the same problems going on between the Game and the official, where a rule-breaking HHH finds his bullying ways met with physical retaliation from the referee. It almost seems like HHH vs. Taka was a practice run for the "match that never happened" the following week on Raw. They took the same basic parts, replaced the challenger with someone much more popular, and threw in a bait-and-switch title change.


WILL IT BE REMEMBERED?

Not by people who weren't watching at the time. I can't see any logical reason why this would make it onto a WWE-endorsed DVD release. Its only hope was maybe sneaking in as a highlight on the Best of Raw DVD that was released somewhat recently, and that was not meant to be. As it stands, the only people who will remember this one are the fans who were watching at the time. Unlike other matches I've covered where newer fans might investigate older matches that the current stars have had, most younger fans would probably ask "Taka Michi-WHO?" And while this isn't a heartbreaking loss for wrestling history, it's still a downer for those of us who got so much entertainment out of the match at the time. So, as usual, the future of wrestling history is in your hands. Spread the word!

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Sadly, we're out of time for this week. You may notice that there isn't any Feedback this week, but that's just because you aren't looking hard enough. It's there. I just wrote it in... invisible text. That's right. Just, uh, look around.

Until next time, keep those suggestions coming. And do your best to stay safe and out of jail. And New Jersey.