Brooklyn Brawlin' 5.14.08: On Second Thought - Brace Yourself, An Early Benoit Main Event Push

Posted by Dan Torkel on 05.14.2008

That joke was lamer than FDR's legs...what...too soon?

Greeting and welcome back to the neighborhood as I took a week off to turn 26 and celebrate nightly. So Sacrifice passed us by and I must say if you can look passed the stupidity of Russo-booking, it was a decent PPV as they continue to make Kaz look like a legit star and Joe gets a good title match to boot. Plus the tag title mess ends rightly with LAX back on top. Raw tonight was a bunch of blah, as Judgment Day seems totally uninteresting, with rematches everywhere. Triple H/Orton again, Edge and Undertaker III, and JBL/Cena does NOTHING for anyone. I am again interested in Jericho vs. HBK but non-title; give the belt some cred will ya!

I would like to say that in the last few weeks I caught up on 24/7 and praise the Latinos!!! Hall of Fame stuff from one of my childhood faves in Tito Santana, the Rey Mysterio collection, and 5 classic Eddie Guerrero shorties! WOW. Plus Flair/Ricky Morton, and Austin and Dude win the tag titles in the TV section. Simply put, I can't believe I ever lived without WWE 24/7.

So I spent the week contemplating what to retro-book and after reading Dunn's Unforgiven 2000 review, it hit me. I remember thinking way back when in 2000 that Chris Benoit and Mick Foley seemed destined for a mega feud that never happened. Now I have made it no secret that Chris Benoit was my favorite wrestler ever before the horror stories of 2007. I, like many IWC members have been reluctant to delve into Benoit matches, stories or dialogues. To be honest, outside of random shots of him with the Horsemen on 24/7 I have not watched a single Benoit match since the murders, and this is from someone owning the Hard Knocks DVD, Wrestlemania X-7 and WM 20 and the RF-Video Best of Benoit in Japan video. That being said let's examine Benoit back when his legacy was fresh and phrases like "wellness" and "wrestling death" were not yet part of the wrestling vernacular.


Mr. Socko, meet Mr. Wolverine!

The year in 2000 and after we all survived the Y2K scare fans of WCW were treating to instant satisfaction and instant heartbreak. Chris Benoit had shocked the wrestling world and tapped Sid to the Crippler Crossface to become the WCW World Champion at their Souled Out PPV in January. One night later, however, Benoit and his fellow disgruntled WCW employees, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn walked away from WCW and within a few weeks showed up on Monday Night Raw, delivering the final deathblow in the Monday Night Wars. Benoit was pushed as the leader of the "Radicals" immediately and after losing in their initial series on Raw, they turned heel by beating the crap out of Mick Foley leading to the long loved 10-man tag Raw main event. 2 months in with the new company and Benoit was already being pushed as a serious threat. He won the Intercontinental Title at Wrestlemania 2000 over Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho (2 already established upper midcard talents). He battled Jericho in 2 more great matches at Backlash and Judgment Day before dropping the IC Title and gaining a manager in Shane McMahon. At Fully Loaded Benoit got his first serious push as a main eventer challenging the Rock for the WWE Title. When a pre-match stipulation seemed to give Benoit the win and Title on a DQ, then retired Commissioner Mick Foley demanded a restart and Rock came out on top. After another series with Jericho, we get to Unforgiven where Benoit is again challenging Rock only this time in a Fatal 4-way with Kane and Undertaker mixed in. Again, Benoit seemingly wins the title, when Foley reverses and decision and Rock retains.

At No Mercy Benoit was involved in a tremendous match with Triple H as Kurt Angle was elevated and would win his first World Title beating the Rock with some help from Rikishi. Instead Benoit comes out on Raw and calls out Mick Foley. He claims that Foley has screwed him out of the WWF Title on 2 separate occasions. Foley says that both times Benoit cheated so and as Commissioner he is there to ensure fairness. He offers Benoit another title shot at Rock tonight on Raw and in the interest of fairness Foley offers to ref the match. Benoit and Rock go nearly 20 minutes in the main event when Rock counters a whip and sends Benoit into Foley headfirst. Benoit dazed, turns into the Rock bottom/People's Elbow and gets pinned. Foley raises Rock's hand and Benoit snaps with a chair and smashes Foley and Rock in the head. He applies the Crossface to a bloody Foley and won't let go as Raw goes off air. Next week Benoit doesn't apologize and demands a match with Foley at No Mercy. Foley says he is retired and refuses. He makes a Benoit/Triple H vs. Rock/Jericho tag match and sits at ringside on commentary. Benoit leaves the ring and spits on Foley and then slaps him. Foley tries to turn away but Benoit nails him with a punch. Rock jumps him but Foley snaps and storms the ring for the DQ. Foley and Benoit battle until refs separate them. They declare that since Foley is retired the WWF will not sanction the match (think Triple H/Shawn from Summerslam 02).

We head into No Mercy with the revised card being Rock and Angle in the Main Event for the WWF Title, Triple H vs. Jericho in a Fully Loaded Rematch and Benoit/Foley in a non-sanctioned Streetfight. The Benoit vs. Foley match goes on nearly 20 minutes and sees the men battle all throughout the arena and get bloodied up. Benoit counters Mr. Socko into the Crossface and drops it around Foley's throat causing the ref to stop the match when Foley's hand drops a third time. Triple H defeats Jericho after Stephanie interference and Angle beats Rock for his first Title win. On Raw Benoit comes out grinning and demands that "disgraced commissioner Mick Foley" name him #1 contender to the WWF Title at Survivor Series. Linda McMahon of all people come out and tell him that Foley is not there but at home with injuries. She adds that he will indeed be #1 contender if and when he defeats Undertaker in the main event. During that match, Foley runs down and sneak attacks Benoit allowing Taker to score the pin with a Chokeslam. Inevitably another month of feuding would lead to an "I Quit" Match at Survivor Series. There, Foley would try to introduce "Barbie" but Benoit would use the barbwire to apply the Crossface and Foley would "quit" for the first time in his career. This would cement Benoit's status as THE premier submission wrestler in the sport and put Foley back on the sidelines where he would stay (on and off) for nearly 4 years before Orton came calling in 2004.

Benoit would use the 2 months of intense fighting with Mick to get involved in the 6-man HIAC at Armageddon 2000 replacing Rikishi. He could segue back to a feud with Jericho and go on his tremendous Jan - June 2001 run, which included his Tag Title win and Main Event Title series with Austin. The only ones screwed over in this booking line were X-Pac and Rikishi, and really are we going to argue for X-Pac and Rikishi? Foley's 2-month feud as Cactus against Triple H in January and February made Hunter a STAR and his series with Orton in 2004 helped legitimize Orton a future top line star. His Mania match with Edge also lent Edge some much needed toughness and legitimacy as a top line heel. There was no reason he couldn't do that for Benoit in 2000. Sure he was out of shape, but hardcore matches were his specialty and instead Benoit nearly got buried under the crap that was "The One Billy Gunn."

I hope reading this, we were able to look back at the wrestler Chris Benoit and not the man he ended up being. Keep emailing me suggestions for retro-booking ideas, old angles and other blown storylines. This week's idea for my WWE FEUDS DVD series is: The Rock/Triple H Master Set

Rock vs. (c) Triple H - IC Title - Raw 2/97
(c) Rock vs. Triple H - IC Title - Final Four - 2/97
(c) Rock vs. Triple H - 2/3 Falls IC Title - Fully Loaded - 7/98
All the DX vs. Nation skits
(c) Rock vs. Triple H - Ladder Match IC Title - Summerslam 98
(c) Rock vs. Triple H - "I Quit" Match WWF Title - Raw - pre WM 15
Conclusion to Fatal 4-way at WM 2000
(c) Triple H vs. Rock - WWF Title - Backlash 2000
(c) Rock vs. Triple H - Ironman Match WWF Title - Judgment Day 2000
(c) Rock vs. Triple H vs. Kurt Angle - WWF Title Triple Threat - Summerslam 2000

Tell next time, watch your 24/7 and have fun storming the castle!