Forgotten Goodness 07.25.06: Jericho vs. Benoit vs. Guerrero vs. X-Pac
Posted by on 07.25.2006
Three of the most gifted wrestlers of all-time battle it out in one of the best matches you may have never seen. We're talking nothing but action, nothing but GOODNESS~! Oh, and yes, X-Pac's there too.
Hasn't been the best week of wrestling, has it? Sounds like the Great American Bash was a decent show despite the injuries to Mark Henry, Lashley and the Great Khali. As a wrestling fan who has grown weary of untimely deaths, it was oddly refreshing to see two guys pulled off the card because testing had found health problems. Whether its due to steroids, vitamins or just an infection, I'm glad it was caught before the show and I hope both wrestlers return to good health. As for the results, we all saw the Chavito turn coming but I was really impressed that Batista won by DQ and Kennedy…Kennedy by all accounts was made to look decent for a bit. A Batista/Kennedy feud down the line, with that match as an impetus, could be fun.
WWF Intercontinental Title Match
Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero vs. X-Pac
No Way Out
Feb. 25, 2001
Markout Memories: This time period is, without a doubt, the absolute zenith of the WWF during the Monday Night Wars and the Austin/Rock era. Austin had just returned from a year's absence due to neck problems and was setting the world on fire in his feud with Kurt Angle. This was Rocky's last hurrah as a full-time pro wrestler before Hollywood came calling. All of this leads up to WrestleMania 17, which is widely regarded, myself included, as the best wrestling show of all-time. The GOODNESS~! of WrestleMania, however, overshadows this show, which is also one of the best of all-time. Austin takes on Triple H in the three stages of hell match that is an easy ***** in my book. Kurt Angle, just beginning his run to greatness, drops the WWF title to Rocky in a ****+ match. There's also a swank battle between Stephanie McMahon and Trish Stratus that was (is?) the best WWF women's match of all-time and is probably coming to this column one day soon. And we have this match, about a dozen non-stop minutes of GOODNESS~!
The Build: Chris Jericho is the champ here and is about to move on to a nice feud with William Regal that would lead into WrestleMania. Guerrero and Benoit are still a team as the last vestige of the Radicals, but that would end shortly as Benoit turned face to feud with Angle after being a heel since arriving in 2000. X-Pac is there to add a body, I guess. The only build mentioned by JR and the King is that Benoit and Guerrero gave Jericho a beatdown on a Raw or SmackDown leading up to this. Jericho is the only face in the match, though the crowd is starting to dig Benoit, and it's fatal four-way rules with everyone in the ring at the same time. I sincerely hope I can keep up with this…
The Match: We begin with possibly the stupidest question ever asked by an interviewer. Lillian Garcia asks Eddie and Benoit how they can "co-exist" in a fatal four-way. Umm, what? Both wrestlers and JR are all over this with JR constantly asking "how can you co-exist in a fatal four-way?" His answer, by the way is, "Existing in a fatal four-way? It doesn't exist!" Suck on that Lillian. We also learn that Jericho put Guerrero out of action for a few months - I don't know if that's true or an angle.
Jericho comes out to a monster pop. X-Pac comes out to silence. Eddie also comes out to silence, isn't that odd? Benoit gets a mixed entrance. Benoit and Eddie rush the ring and it's on like crazy. Eddie and Jericho are left in the ring and Eddie quickly gets tossed in the air and kicked in the corner. Oh, it's going to be one of those nights. Crazy chops from Y2J as Benoit beats X-Pac. Big clothesline from Jericho and Benoit says NO! He then proceeds to chop the skin off of Jericho's chest. Eddie says "hey, I want some" so he kicks Jericho a few times. Eddie & Benoit do some double-teaming as the Y2J chants starts. Seriously, X-Pac does not need to be in this match at all.
Benoit gives Jericho a double-forearm that may have broken Jericho's face. That was awesome. So Jericho gives a double forearm to Benoit. Biatch! X-Pac comes in to kick everybody and the crowd does not like it. In both a good way and a bad way - no one likes X-Pac. Eddie and Benoit decide to beat up X-Pac and the crowd is silent with X-Pac. Great spot as Benoit tells Eddie to go to the top…but instead locks in the crossface, which pisses Eddie off. Eddie is up top and gets crotched. The pain is just beginning here. Eddie is still perched on the top so X-Pac goes up and tries to superplex him. It does not work. Eddie with the frogsplash! Jericho breaks it up.
Benoit is brining the stiff GOODNESS~! today and is just wailing away on Jericho. That's always fun to watch. Another sweet spot as Benoit has Jericho pinned and Eddie puts Jericho's foot on the rope without Benoit knowing. I like that. After some more shenanigans, it's X-Pac and Benoit in the ring. Unreal snap suplex from Benoit gets a legit TWO. X-Pac comes back with a nice spinning heel kick and calls for the gay-ass BroncoBuster. Jericho gives him a missile dropkick to a pop. Benoit decides it's a good time for more flying forearms for a TWO. He follows that up with a German for a TWO! Oh wait, Eddie broke up the pin so they start fighting to a pop.
Hurricanrana by Eddie gets another pop and the crowd is, how you say, feeling this match. Jericho and X-Pac "rest" outside by punching…just kidding…Jericho suplexed him on the floor. In the ring, Eddie got a TWO off of a brainbuster. JESUS! With the camera focused on the ring, you see Jericho tossed into the ring steps…it gets replay love. Another brainbuster from Eddie as JR bemoans "co-existing" in a fatal four-way. Huuuuuge superplex by Benoit to Eddie off of the top rope…just insane. Cool spot as X-Pac and Jericho crawl into the ring, both cover one guy and both get TWO. Crowd dug that spot, as did I. They should bring that back one day, that was neat-o.
An underhook backbreaker from Jericho - viva la moveset! Jericho goes back to the chops but Benoit says "This is how you do it!" He chops Jericho so hard that the King says, "I'd tap out right now." Damn straight, I would too. Jericho avoids more pain and comes with a cradle for a TWO. Benoit is not impressed and separates Jericho's head from his neck with a clothesline. Then he does more chops that have even JR impressed. Crowd comes with the big Y-2-J chant - remember how over Jericho was back in the day? This has turned into a Benoit/Jericho match and I like it. Another German suplex into a pin gets a TWO. I just remembered Benoit took on Jericho in their famous ladder match a month earlier at the Royal Rumble. How did I forget that? I own that show! I am real dumbass. I am a real Dumass material, Mr. Dumass.
Jericho gets the Walls of Jericho on Benoit and the crowd is standing and screaming! Eddie comes in…WALLS OF JERICHO! Will he tap? Wait, here's X-Pac! THIRD WALLS OF JERICHO! Haha, what an unbelievable spot! Justin Credible of all people comes running down to get smacked in the face by Jericho and it's breakin' loose in Tulsa! Full-nelson suplex (holy crap!) gets TWO from Benoit. Crowd is all standing now. Benoit knocks down Eddie, then gets tripped up from the outside by X-Pac and his face lands in an uncomfortable place for Eddie. X-Pac and Credible drag Benoit outside and give him a double kick to the face - it's like they're the Rockers. Except not.
Jericho has a hurt Eddie in the ring and his the Lionsault. TWO, because X-Pac broke it up. Jericho tries something but gets a kick to the groin for his troubles followed by an X-Factor for TWO because of Benoit. Benoit then nails Credible off the apron and Credible takes a fun face-first bump off the railing. In the ring, Benoit with the crossface…it's over, right? Not so fast…Eddie comes by with a wicked neckbreaker. Crowd is getting progressively hotter with each move at this point. If this match happened on SmackDown this week, it'd be the talk of the Internet for a month. We were so spoiled.
"Look at the carnage!" sayeth JR as we have the ultra-rare quadruple count by the ref as all four men are down. The Radicals get up first so Benoit hits a side-suplex, cuts the throat and hits the top-rope headbutt. X-Pac hits Benoit with a kick right to the face - Benoit must have forgot to put his hands up because he took that on the chin! Jericho comes up from behind and pins X-Pac for the THREE! This place goes crazy! Chris Jericho pins X-Pac at 12:18 to retain the Intercontinental Title
In a moment smart marks will love, Jericho's celebration gets cut off so we can go to the back and watch Triple H getting his wrists taped. Smell the excitement! Actually, in 2001, we liked that stuff.
The 411 - (****1/4) What can you say about that match? It had absolutely everything you could want. Sure, some don't like the rules because of the broken-up pins but it makes sense in the context of the match. This was all-action bell to bell with only one point - when all four guys were down - that nothing was happening. The moveset was off the charts with a bunch of cool moves you don't see anymore in the WWE, a good story with Benoit and Eddie going at it and a satisfying finish with the face Jericho overcoming the insurmountable odds to keep the title. Now I know why X-Pac was there. The only thing that kept this match from being higher was without a real feud coming into it, the crowd was quiet in the beginning and seemed antsy, which hurts the match. But they were rockin' by the end. The ending seemed a bit rushed but, as I mentioned, all the crowd cared about was seeing Jericho get his hand raised.
Why It Has Vanished: This match would have stolen the show on just about any other wrestling card ever, yet it picked the wrong night. Nothing was going to enter the fans' minds beside Austin/HHH and Rocky/Angle. This was a fantastic match, don't get me wrong, but it didn't lead to anything and was overshadowed by all the other awesomeness the WWF was putting out at this time. If you haven't seen this match or this show, DO SO NOW! It is a simply spectacular show and when a ****+ match is the third best match of the show…well that's something special, don't you think?
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